This rating is really for the MPAA, which is at its core, a censorship group in bed with the big studios to keep independent filmmakers down, and the morality police trying (quite successfully, unfortunately) to ram their Protestant middle America idea of what's right and wrong down everyone's throat. Another problem with the ratings system is that it punishes movies for sexual content, even when shown with love and tenderness, while allowing extreme and repetitive violence. If these people were really worried about their children, then they would be rating films the other way. But their Puritanical view of the world is too narrow. 'Sex is dirty, and as long as the guy shooting up the screen is a good guy, it's okay.' In the end, we all lose.

Another Hollywood Money making scheme to avoid the stigma of an X rating.(Even many newspapers wouldn't carry ads for X Films.)I thought that the more friendly rating was going to great for Horror Films.I was always reading about all these Horror Films having to cut scenes to get an R rating.I figured they could keep the Films intact & get an NC-17.But even the Horror Filmakers feared the new rating. It's too bad now Horror Fans have to wait for the deleted scenes on DVD.So why bother going to a Theatre when You can get it all on DVD 2-3 months later?

A trashy, useless rating that any film should thoroughly avoid. Almost every film rated NC-17 is an endless fountain of raunch or just nihilistic to the point of no return.

A hard to market rating, because for many NC-17 means pornography,heavy violence, and adult content, which means no ads on TV or in newspapers. As a result many films had to be cut in length and content so they can be Rated R.