when did the motion picture rating system start
Motion Picture Association of America film rating system Jack Valenti, who had become president of the Motion Picture Association of America in May 1966, deemed the Motion Picture Production Code – in place since 1930 and rigorously enforced since 1934 – as out of date and bearing "the odious smell of censorship". Filmmakers were pushing at the boundaries of the Code, and Valenti cited examples such as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which contained the expressions "screw" and "hump the hostess"; and Blowup, which was denied Code approval due to nudity, resulting in the MPAA member studio releasing it through a subsidiary. He revised the Code to include the "SMA" (Suggested for Mature Audiences) advisory as a stopgap measure. To accommodate "the irresistible force of creators determined to make 'their films'", and to avoid "the possible intrusion of government into the movie arena", he developed a set of advisory ratings which could be applied after a film was completed. On November 1, 1968, the voluntary MPAA film rating system took effect, with three organizations serving as its monitoring and guiding groups: the MPAA, the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO), and the International Film Importers & Distributors of America (IFIDA).[6] Only films that premiered in the U.S. after November 1, 1968 had to carry the ratings.[7] Walter Reade was the only one of 75 top U.S. exhibitors who refused to use the ratings.[7] Warner-7 Arts' The Girl on a Motorcycle was the first film to receive the X rating and was distributed by their subsidiary, Claridge Pictures.[8] Two other films were rated X by the time the MPAA published their first weekly bulletin listing ratings, Paramount's Sin With a Stranger and Universal's Birds in Peru. Both were to be released by subsidiaries.[9]