This is a list of films rated NC-17 (Adults Only or No One 17 and Under Admitted; originally No Children Under 17 Admitted) by the Motion Picture Association of America's Classification and Rating Administration (CARA). It includes X-rated films reassigned an NC-17 rating, and titles which were originally rated NC-17, but later re-edited for a different rating.
Titles with surrendered ratings are usually released unrated to avoid the stigma of NC-17. Some films are released without an MPAA rating because the filmmaker expects an NC-17.
Changes in ratings are due to resubmission or appeal by a film's producers. Films receiving an NC-17 are often cut and resubmitted in hopes of earning an R rating, which allows distribution to more outlets than an NC-17 rating. Still, there are some exceptions: for example, in 2004, Fox Searchlight Pictures released The Dreamers with an NC-17 rating; this film grossed $2.5 million in its United States theatrical release, a respectable result for a specialized film with a targeted audience. The same year, Sony Pictures Classics released Bad Education with an NC-17 rating; it grossed $5.2 million in the United States theatrically, earning back more than its budget of $5 million. Furthermore, in 2007, Focus Features released Lust, Caution with an NC-17 rating; it grossed $4.6 million in the United States theatrically, and Focus was very satisfied with the film's theatrical release.
NC-17 films also tended to gross more on the home media market. For example, Showgirls became one of MGM's top 20 all-time bestsellers, and Lust, Caution has generated more than $18 million from DVD rentals in the United States.
Occasionally an R-rated film will have footage or language added to earn an NC-17 rating and its accompanying notoriety. In at least one case, an R-rated film was re-rated NC-17 even though no edits were made: The 1969 Sam Peckinpah film The Wild Bunch, originally rated R, was resubmitted by Warner Bros. in 1993 before an expected re-release; to their surprise, it was rated NC-17, delaying the re-release while the decision was appealed.
Some titles include the reasons the rating was given. In 1990, the Classification and Rating Administration began including a brief statement of the reason for a specific film's R rating; several years later it began giving reasons for all film ratings.
Since the NC-17 rating was created in 1990 to replace the X rating (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, Life Is Cheap... But Toilet Paper Is Expensive, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre III were all given X ratings that year), this list does not include X-rated films, unless they were later re-rated NC-17. A majority of the films on this list either were edited to obtain an R and/or had the NC-17 rating surrendered. Few films have kept the rating for theatrical or DVD release.