In England a movie being rated 18 is a very common occurrence, like not every other movie is rated 18 but there also probably at least one playing in a theatre somewhere in England. But when i hear Americans talking about the NC-17 rating they act as if there is going to be genuine snuff in the movie and hardcore porn.
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NC-17 is rarely used and denotes that the film will have very explicit sexual content or really over the top, realistic violence in most cases.
We have an “R” rating that means “restricted.” Children under 17 aren’t permitted without a parent or guardian. This is fairly common and many mainstream movies are rated R due to violence or sexual content.
NC-17 means no children under 18 at all, regardless of whether they are with a parent. This is much more unusual, especially for mainstream movies (because fewer theaters will even show them). These usually include extremely graphic violence or sexual content.
NC-17 means no admittance to anyone under the age of 17, even if a parents is attending with them.
Many studeos will re-edit the movie and appeal for a “R” or Restricted rating instead, which allows anyone under the age of 17 so long as a parent is with them. Usually NC-17 is considered a death sentence for a movies box-office release
Films that receive a NC-17 do so because of extreme graphic violence, or sexual content. It does not designate a film as being pornography.
NC-17 is a step above R and extremely rare. Like, I’d assume it’s films along the lines of things like Cannibal Holocaust.
NC-17 movies aren’t porn, but they’re usually pretty close.
Funnily enough, there was a documentary that came out about how movies are rated called This Film Is Not Yet Rated. It was supposed to be an expose of the arbitrary nature of film ratings, despite the fact that film ratings can have a huge impact on how much money a movie makes, and how widely distributed it is.
For me at least though, it showed that the film rating system is actually pretty fair! All the films they showed that got NC-17…I ended up agreeing with the rating.
NC-17 movies generally aren’t shown at major chain theaters. It severely limits how widely the film can be distributed. Very few films actually proceed with the NC 17 rating.
In England, most of the movies shown in your theaters are probably American. So, whatever you can watch there, it’s likely we can also watch in the US.
NC-17 is an unusual rating. You can read about it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Association_film_rating_system
NC-17 is closer to the R18 rating than it is to 18.
Blonde, on Netflix is rated NC-17.
R-rated movies are the equivalent of your “rated 18”, in that theaters don’t let minors in without a parent.
NC-17 basically means it’s too graphic for movie theaters, think porn and real life gore. “X-rated” isn’t actually an MPAA rating.
Honestly the only movie I can think of with that rating is Blue is the Warmest Color
In addition to what everyone else is saying, [IMDB lists only 95 NC-17 films.](https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?certificates=US%3ANC-17&sort=year,desc) Ever. And close to a third of those are re-classed films, from before the rating was introduced.
NC-17 rating (historically X rating) is just so rarely seen that anytime a movie releases with it, it becomes big gossip.
Movie makers aim for an R rating at most simply because NC-17 doesn’t sell all that well. Hell, many retailers (Walmart, for instance) refused to stock NC-17 movies (and AO games as well).
Because there will be genuine snuff in the movie and/or hardcore porn if it’s rated NC-17
I’ve never even heard of it