Rise of the R-rated Reels

REBECCA ZENG
Staff Writer

A new movie comes out in Hollywood, dubbed “Room C225 Never Existed.” The movie, featuring stabbed and bloody teenage bodies, crude language and drug abuse is rated R for restricted. However, if it is rated R, why is it directed to a teenage audience?

Teenagers generally have more time to watch movies, especially during the weekends, when adults are still working and they are at home alone. The time a middle-aged adult with children has for leisure is about two and a half hours each week, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

On the other hand, according to the BLS, unemployed teenagers have an average of three and a half hours of free time each week, including weekends. This increases the probability of teenagers watching movies more often than adults watch movies.

However, R-rated films may contain strong profanity, graphic sexuality, nudity, strong violence, scariness, gore, and drug use. A movie rated R for profanity often has more severe or frequent language than the PG-13 rating would permit. The exposure teenagers get when they are given this amount of liberty endangers them to seek risky and inappropriate types of entertainment,

According to the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2012, rated R movies made the list of the top 25 films in the U.S. and Canada than in the year 2000. One cause could be because watching R-rated movies may be considered sophisticated and cool, which draws teenager to these movies. Word of mouth and movie reviews are also effective ways of selling movie tickets since people watch movies when they were formerly apathetic to the film.