system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Stranger Things]why is the movie theater advertising The Terminator as there top billed Halloween movie, it was envisioned low budged schlock when it first came out plus its R hated so no kids (IE the demographic Halloween marketing focused on most) can't see it?

Edits:"no kids can see it"
gpt
Terminator was the #1 movie on October 26, 1984, edging out Terror in the Aisles (also R-rated).  4/5 of that weekend's top 5 were R-rated as well.  

Halloween that year was on a Wednesday, assuming trick-or-treat was that night, that would have given the theater operator time to decide to push it.  The next weekend had no wide-release movies open, so leading off into that weekend with last week's #1 seems like a sound strategy.

Furthermore, even if trick-or-treat was before Halloween in Hawkins that year, it still lines up.  Of all the new movies that came out on 10/26/84, 3 were R-rated, and 2 were PG.  Of those, the PG ones weren't blockbuster material, and of the R-rated ones, one was Terminator, one was a documentary, and one was a bit more adult-oriented.  Terminator was probably just the logical choice of those five.

Also, it's not like the age restrictions are a legally binding thing.  If teenagers, or even middle-schoolers, wanted to get into see Terminator, they probably could have.

(I sourced that info off BoxOfficeMojo, if you want to corroborate)