Question: Are the MPAA movie ratings a form of economic censorship?
Plan: If I were to actually write this paper I would probably have five paragraphs: 1) introduction 2) paragraph on box office grosses with evidence from boxofficemojo.com and an interview with UMT manager Cloud Spurlock 3) paragraph on the smothering of creativity and artistic value with evidence from the Luke Thompson article 4) paragraph on the perceptions of moviegoers with evidence from the Rick Lyman and Kendrick Macdowell articles and 5) conclusion with quotations from UMT owner Mark O’Meara and also a look at the opposing viewpoint.
Statement of Interest: As an employee of a movie theater and a prospective business major, I’m very interested in finding out what factors influence profit. My boss may believe the industry is unpredictable, but I tend to think there has to be a general formula out there for determining success, at least to some degree. This topic is also important because it illustrates that censorship comes in many forms, not just the way we traditionally think of it. If we can recognize the more subtle forms we may be better able to combat it.
