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Film & Television vocabulary · Distribution, Festivals and Awards

Age rating

Meaning in film & television, with examples

/ˈeɪdʒ ˌreɪtɪŋ/nounCommon term

In film & television, age rating means: An official category given to a film or programme that shows which age groups it is suitable for, based on content such as violence, language and sex.

In Turkish: yaş sınırı, yaş sınıflandırması, izleyici kategorisi

How it is used

In the US the MPA uses G, PG, PG-13, R and NC-17; in the UK the BBFC uses U, PG, 12A, 15 and 18. A film is rated R or gets a 15 rating. Distributors sometimes cut scenes to get a lower age rating and reach a wider audience.

Example sentences

  1. The age rating is 13+, so younger children can't see it in cinemas.

  2. They removed two shots to get a lower age rating.

Common collocations

  • age rating
  • be rated R
  • rating board
  • parental guidance
  • family-friendly rating
  • releaseTo make a film or series available to the public in cinemas, on TV or on streaming platforms. As a noun, a release is a film being shown or the act of showing it.
  • distributorA company that buys the rights to show a film in a country or region and handles its release, marketing and delivery to cinemas or platforms.
  • ratingsMeasurements of how many people watch a TV programme, used by channels and advertisers to judge its success.
  • streaming serviceAn online service that lets subscribers watch films and series over the internet whenever they want, often including its own original productions.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Distribution, Festivals and Awards

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