Have Hollywood attitudes towards content in 12A films become more liberal or have audiences’ film desires changed?
Many film franchises in the previous years have released many films with the age rating of 12A. These movies have controversial content such as mature themes, discrimination, soft drugs, mild swearing and moderate violence/sexual references. I agree that Hollywood has allowed films to include more extreme lengths to the controversial content and allowing the younger generation (as young as 12) to become influenced by certain acts which takes place in movies. The reasonable justification for this is because film industries are profit-driven. An example is this is ‘The Dark Knight’ which has many gory and torturous scenes to have an age rating of 12A. This depicts how film industries are aiming to target a higher audience appeal, although they are exposing negative things. However, The Fast and Furious brand, in particular the first release which was named ‘The Fast and Furious’ primarily had an age rating of 15 because of the fact that the movie was solely based on underground street-racing which comes from criminal activity. With its latest release ‘Fast and Furious 7’ is more action-based, which makes it acceptable to be a 12A as it doesn't promote as much illegal activity to do with street-racing and focuses more on carrying out storylines which encourages the Fast and Furious team to devise a plan on how to deal with criminals which are a big threat. This links to Blumler and Katz, Uses and Gratifications theory, as young kids may want to watch popular 12A movies such as ‘The Hunger Games’, ‘The Fast and Furious’ and ‘Dark Knight’ for entertainment. Overall, I think that Hollywood is exposing more controversial content because film companies want to maximise profits and have the highest figures in Box Office. Audiences’ film desires have been the same but Hollywood is exposing more controversy to younger kids by allowing majority of the films within the past five years to be a 12A.
