September 14, 2016

Stanton A. Glantz, PhD

First-ever R-rating for smoking goes to the wrong film?

All These Sleepless Nights — Rated R for language and smoking throughout, drug use and some sexuality/graphic nudity. Rating certificate #50675. Source: MPAA Rating Bulletin #2442 (14 September 2016)
 
What we know about this film
 
A Polish documentary film about art students in Warsaw. At Sundance, it won the Directing Award in the World Cinema - Documentary category. Produced by Endorfina (Warsaw) and Pulse (UK). The film's distributor, The Orchard, is an LA-based independent. Limited showings at film festivals, so far. First R-rated film identified with smoking as a reason.
 
What we know about smoking descriptors
 
In 2007, having promised state Attorneys General it would address on-screen smoking, the MPAA announced “smoking” descriptors might be added to the ratings of some films. Since 2007, the MPAA has included "smoking" descriptors on:
 
• 11 percent (40 of 349) of top-grossing, youth-rated films with smoking
 
Top-grossing youth-rated films have delivered nearly half (46%) of all tobacco impressions to theater audiences since 2007. The top-grossing films that MPAA tagged for smoking accounted for 9 percent.
 
• 24 percent (33 of 140) of lower-performing youth-rated films with smoking
 
Films earning at least $1 million at the box office but not among the top ten films each week are more likely to be released by smaller independents, not major studios. Smaller youth-rated films have delivered two percent of tobacco impressions since 2007. Those tagged for smoking by the MPAA accounted for less than one percent.
 
What we know about the MPAA's rating practices
 
• Films without big budgets are more likely to be tagged for smoking by the MPAA
 
Among big-budget, top box-office films with smoking, 32 percent (16 of 50) rated G/PG were tagged by the MPAA. Of those rated PG-13, only 8 percent (24/299) were tagged.
 
In contrast, nearly two out of three (16 of 26) smaller G/PG film with smoking were tagged, along with 15 percent (17/114) of smaller PG-13 films with smoking.
 
• The MPAA tags only a fraction of the actual health risk to kids
 
As a public relations exercise, the MPAA's smoking descriptors on a small fraction of films (many in limited release) may serve to mislead parents and policymakers about the real size of the health risk children continue to confront on screen.
 
In the past decade, since 2007, the MPAA has added tobacco warnings to just six percent (40 of 709) of all top-grossing films with smoking, accounting for 11 percent (4,450 of 40,400) of tobacco incidents in top-grossing films, and 10 percent (15 billion of 157 billion) of tobacco impressions delivered to US theater audiences of all ages.
 
Ironically, under the even-handed R-rating for tobacco imagery proposed by the world’s leading health authorities, documentaries such as All These Sleepless Nights would not be awarded an R-rating for smoking.
 
The proposed R-rating makes transparent, categorical exceptions for films depicting tobacco use by actual, historical people (as in a biographical drama or documentary) or depicting the actual health consequences of tobacco use. 
 
The MPAA and the major studios that control it appear to be doing everything with their film ratings except protect young audiences from tobacco. They can so easily save a million lives.
 
What could be worth more to them than that?
_______________________________________________________________
 
This analysis, prepared by Jonathan Polansky, is based on data gathered by Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down!, a project of Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails.  It is cross-posted from the Smoke Free Movies blog at http://smokefreemovies.ucsf.edu/blog/first-ever-r-rating-smoking-goes-wrong-film
 

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