Images vol. XXXVII/no. 46 Poznań 2024 ISSN 1731-450x Images 37(46), 2024: 43–53. © e Author(s). Published by: Adam Mickiewicz University Press, 2024. Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the CC licence (BY, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). arkadiusz lewicki University of Wroclaw e Rating System as Part of the American Film Industry (1970–2019) Abstract. Lewicki Arkadiusz, e Rating System as Part of the American Film Industry (1970– 2019). “Images” vol. XXXVII, no. 46. Poznań 2024. Adam Mickiewicz University Press. Pp. 43–53. ISSN 1731-450X. https://doi.org/10.14746/i.2024.37.46.3 e article is an attempt to indicate what role the rating system introduced in 1968 plays in the Amer- ican film industry. e first part provides an introduction to the history of American film censorship and presents the reasons why the Production Code was replaced by a system of restrictions related to the age of viewers. e second part of the text is analytical in nature. First, the distribution of indi- vidual rating categories in the 500 most popular films from 1970–2019 is checked, and it is revealed how the understanding of individual categories has changed and how the US film industry itself has changed. e second study, based on statistical data, shows the distribution of rating categories among all films distributed in the US in the years 2000–2019. is allows us to indicate the growth in the importance of the PG and PG-13 categories and also the increase in both the number and market share of films that are not subject to the system introduced by the MPA. Keywords: rating system, film censorship in USA, Hollywood film industry, film business statistics e article aims to illustrate how the distribution of films across the rating categories established in 1968 changed in the years 1970–2019. e first part of the text will briefly describe the key points related to the implementation of censorship in the American cinematographic system and the replacement of the Hays Code with the rating sys- tem.[ 1 ] e next section will be dedicated to a detailed description of the methodology used to select the films for analysis, which includes the top 500 box-office hits from five decades. Subsequently, the distribution of rating categories in this group of most popular films from each decade will be analysed, allowing for an examination of the processes occurring in Hollywood over the past half-century in terms of the types of film productions that were deemed economically attractive. Complementing this analysis is an examina- tion of the percentage distribution and profits achieved by films with different rating categories among all films shown in American cinemas from 2000–2019. On February 23, 1915, the United States Supreme Court delivered a judgment in the case of Mutual Pictures vs. Industrial Commission Censorship and the Rating System [1] J. Lewis, Hollywood v. Hard Core: How the Struggle Over Censorship Created the Modern Film Industry, New York University Press, New York 2002.