easily accessible entertainment source, which led to lower levels of cinema audiences and a drop in studio profits. The change in the moviegoer audience was a big disadvantage for the studios which still operated with their costy musicals and historical big screen films. An audience survey revealed that “in 1968, 48 percent of box office admissions were from the 16–24 age group” (Prince 14). The altered taste of the diverse range of spectators, who started to embrace European and Japanese cinema, affected the attitude of studios tremendously.
Prince notes that the factors which contributed to the onset of the new cinematic production in the United States in the late 1960s “coalesce around two watershed events” (Prince 12). The first one was the revision, then abandonment of the Motion Picture Production Code (or Hays Code). This was a ’handbook’ with moral guidelines enforced by the Production Code Administration. It was in force for more than thirty years with restrictions regarding profanity, nudity, use of firearms and gruesomeness – just to mention a few of the document of this “selfimposed censorship” (Prince 12).
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The Motion Picture Association of America (hereinafter MPAA), an association which represents the major Hollywood studios, hired Jack Valenti as its president in 1966. Thanks to his attempts and approach, the MPAA created a new Code and Rating Administration and the GMRX system of classification which became effective in 1968 (Prince 26). Rating G stood for general audiences, M for mature audiences, R meant the restricted material, for persons under 16 who were admitted with adult guardians only. Finally, X completely prohibited the viewers younger than 16 (“G, M, R, X? - The Origin of U.S. Film Ratings”). This implies that one of the intentions was to set up a system which helps parents to decide on appropriate movies for their