Marketing of R-rated Movies to Be Controlled

Sept. 27 -- Eight studio executives confirmed in front of the Senate Commerce Committee today that children as young as 9 years old were tested for their reactions to R-rated, violent movies.

One of them, Mel Harris, the president of Sony, parent company of Columbia Pictures, called the test-marketing of a violent PG-13 film — The Fifth Element, an action science fiction story starring Bruce Willis — before the younger audience “a judgment lapse.”

Other industry executives said much of the test-marketing was done by an independent company, National Research Group, not by the companies that produce the films.

“All of us in the media industry have a fundamental responsibility to help parents cope with the many entertainment choices facing their children,” said Peter Chernin, president of News Corp., the parent company of 20th Century Fox.

Ads Also in Question

The hearing also focused on another practice that has drawn parents’ ire: showing previews for R-rated films to audiences watching G-rated movies.

Films such as Scream III and The Cell, both rated R, often previewed before a G-Rated movie for children. According to the Parents Television Council, 83 percent of ads on television between the hours of 8 and 9 p.m. were for R-rated moves.

Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Friedman told the panel his studio does not systematically focus its advertising efforts for R-rated movies at young children.

Studio executives promised to urge theater owners to stop this practice, in hopes of convincing Congress that legislation would not be necessary. “We are not going to market R-for-violent films to 10 and 12 year olds,” said Stacy Snider, chairwoman of Universal Pictures.

However, Friedman acknowledged the industry has not always been as careful with its ads as it should have been. He said movies are art and there is no set formula for making them or marketing them.

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