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General Audiences Rating
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MediaNotes / General Audiences Rating
What's this? A G rating? How dare you defile my movie with this rating?! Face my wrath!

One of the age ratings of the Motion Picture Association. This rating is aimed at general audiences, hence the title. Because of the association of the G rating with kids' movies, Avoid the Dreaded G Rating happens, and people deliberately add profanity, sexual innuendo, or similar into their movies so their film won't be rated G.

The rating has become less used since the 2010s, with most films that would have gotten it in previous years getting a PG certificate.

Unique cases

The Straight Story (David Lynch) was rated G. The lack of any content likely to offend or harm children gave the film its G rating. Despite its G rating, the themes of the film would likely bore children, and in addition, there is use of very mild profanity ("damn" and "hell") and smoking, which alone can get you a PG-13 today.

The Winslow Boy, a 1999 adaption of the Terrence Rattigan play of the same name, is another rare instance of a G-rated film aimed primarily at adults. Amusingly, it was directed by David Mamet, who is infamous for his frequent Cluster F-Bomb dialogue in his own scripts.

2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick) was controversially rated G despite containing a prolonged death scene (with the victim visibly suffering as he tries to breathe), a scene with multiple deaths and intense themes; however, due to the lack of action, the fact that the deaths are not violent and the idea that children may not understand or recognize the deaths, it was rated accordingly.

Two sequels from Pixar:

  • 2010's Toy Story 3 was given a G rating like the previous two films. However, the MPA received calls from parents who thought it was too intense for their children, especially due to the infamous incinerator scene.
  • The very next year, Cars 2 controversially received a G despite containing many explosions and other scenes that may frighten young children. The film was criticized by many due to that, but at least the MPA didn't get any angry phone calls this time (to our knowledge).note 

Star Trek: The Motion Picture was originally rated G in 1979, even though it had discussions of sexuality (Lt. Iilia's assertion that her "oath of celibacy" was on file, implying that the Deltans' hat was being a species that Really Gets Around) and a gruesome sequence depicting two crew members killed in a transporter accident. When the Director's Cut was released in 2001, the edited film was resubmitted for rating as a new version, and the MPAA raised the rating to a PG.

Disney's The Hunchback Of Notre Dame was given a G rating despite having serious subject matter such as genocide.

When Miramax acquired the American distribution rights to Freddie as F.R.O.7, the film was originally released with a G rating. However, parents complained to the MPA about the film being inappropriate for young children due to El Supremo's team containing Nazis and Klan members. The film was re-rated to PG, but by then it was too late.

Films that have been given this rating:

Alternative Title(s): G Rating

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