Editing X rating (section)

==United States==
{{refimprove section|date=February 2018}}
[[File:MPAA X RATING.svg|thumb|right|upright|Until 1990, the X rating was used by the Motion Picture Association of America for films deemed only suitable for adults.]]
In the [[United States]], the '''X rating''' was applied to a film that contained content judged unsuitable for [[children]], such as extreme violence, strongly implied sex, and graphic language. When the [[Motion Picture Association of America film rating system|MPAA film rating system]] began in North America on November 1, 1968, the X rating was given to a film by the Motion Picture Association of America (now the [[Motion Picture Association]]) if submitted to it, or due to its non-trademarked status, it could be self-applied to a film by a distributor that knew beforehand that its film contained content unsuitable for minors. From the [[New Hollywood|late 1960s]] to about the [[1980s in film|mid-1980s]], many mainstream films were released with an X rating, such as ''[[Midnight Cowboy]]'', ''[[Medium Cool]]'', ''[[The Girl on a Motorcycle]]'', ''[[Last Summer (1969 film)|Last Summer]]'', ''[[Last of the Mobile Hot Shots]]'', ''[[Beyond the Valley of the Dolls]]'', ''[[The Street Fighter]]'', ''[[A Clockwork Orange (film)|A Clockwork Orange]]'', ''[[Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song]]'', ''[[Fritz the Cat (film)|Fritz the Cat]]'', ''[[Flesh Gordon]]'', ''[[Alice in Wonderland (1976 film)|Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Comedy]]'', ''[[Last Tango in Paris]]'' and ''[[The Evil Dead (1981 film)|The Evil Dead]]''. Films that achieved critical and commercial success were later re-rated R after minor cuts, including ''Midnight Cowboy'' and ''A Clockwork Orange.'' The threat of an X rating also encouraged filmmakers to [[Re-edited film|re-edit]] their films to achieve an R rating; one notable example of this was the 1987 action film ''[[RoboCop]]'', which had to be edited eleven times before it could attain an R rating.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzBkjTxD1a0 |title=Backstory RoboCop AMC |publisher=YouTube |access-date=July 18, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130718170224/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzBkjTxD1a0 |archive-date=July 18, 2013 }}</ref>

Because the X rating was not trademarked, anybody could apply it to their films, including pornographers, as many began to do in the 1970s. As [[pornography]] began to become more popular and more legally and commercially tolerated, pornographers placed an X rating on their films to emphasize the adult content. Some even started using multiple X's (i.e. XX, XXX, etc.) to give the impression that their film contained more graphic sexual content than the simple X rating. In some cases, the X ratings were applied by reviewers or film scholars, e.g. [[William Rotsler]], who wrote "The XXX-rating is for [[Hardcore pornography|hardcore]], the XX-rating is for [[Softcore pornography|softcore]], and an X-rating is for comparatively cool films."<ref>Rotslter, William. ''Contemporary Erotic Cinema''. New York: [[Penthouse (magazine)|Penthouse]]/[[Ballantine Books]], 1973. page 251.</ref> Nothing beyond the simple X rating has ever been officially recognized by the MPAA. Because of the heavy use of the X rating by pornographers, it became associated largely with pornographic films, so that non-pornographic films given an X rating would have fewer theaters willing to book them and fewer venues for advertising. Many newspapers refused to advertise X-rated films. This led to a number of films being released unrated sometimes with a warning that the film contained content for adults only. In response, the MPAA eventually agreed in 1990 to a new [[Motion Picture Association of America film rating system#X replaced by NC-17|NC-17]] rating that would be trademarked, and could only be applied by the MPAA itself. By [[trademark]]ing the rating, the MPAA committed to defending an NC-17 film charged with violating [[obscenity laws]].