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ABSTRACT
Recent research has found a link between the presence of violent content, movie ratings, and ticket sales, but has left several questions unanswered. The current study attempts to answer these questions by examining the level of adult content in 2,094 popular movies between 1992 and 2012. We find that the amount of violent content is a significant predictor of ticket sales, but only in non-R rated movies. Furthermore, we find evidence that violent content has been increasing in non-R rated movies and this increase is likely due to changes in MPAA ratings standards. We discuss the implications of our findings.
Notes
1 This score ranges from 1 to 100 and is based on the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film. We originally included an Audience Score as well but, surprisingly, the two variables were highly correlated. Therefore, were only able to include one of the variables and we chose to go with the critics’ reviews. All models were run using each of the two variables, but the results were not substantively different.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Raymond E. Barranco
Raymond E. Barranco is an Associate Professor in Department of Sociology at Mississippi State University. His research broadly focuses on violence, race/ethnicity, and immigration. His published work has appeared in Social Forces, The Sociological Quarterly, Social Science Research, and other venues.
Nicole E. Rader
Nicole E. Rader is a Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Arts & Sciences at Mississippi State University. Her primary research areas are fear of crime, victimization, and the media. She has published recent work in the International Review of Victimology, Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, and Feminism & Psychology.
Maria T. Trinh
Maria T. Trinh is a doctoral candidate at Mississippi State University and is expected to get her Ph.D. in spring 2019. Her research interests are crime/deviance, terrorism, and media.