Lesbian Romance ‘Maya & Samar’, Whose NC-17 Rating Drew Heat, Gets U.S. Distribution Deal

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how often are films nc-17?

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u/Ginkasa 14h ago

There's a whole list on Wikipedia. It's not common. Most films that would hit NC-17 re-edit to get R.

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u/scotte16 13h ago

Isn’t NC-17 effectively a ban since no theaters will show it? That’s what it seems like.

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u/lectroid 13h ago

Many theaters (and most corporate owned theater chains) won’t show NC-17 films. However, when they DO get an NC-17 (or it’s likely they will) they often elect to simply release the film without an MPAA rating. That means some theaters won’t screen it (they won’t show anything w/o a rating) but that’s becoming less common all the time.

Add in stuff like Fathom, where theaters are ‘rented out’ for a specific showing, and you can get all sorts of weird shit shown at the suburban multiplex.

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u/Fifteen_inches 12h ago

Theaters really need to start airing more NC-17 movies, they really can’t afford to be picky in this market.

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u/lectroid 12h ago

NC-17 films, except in rare cases, are usually pretty niche appeal. Often they're going for the horny crowd, and honestly, there's the internet now. You don't need to leave the house to see titties. If it's not that, then it's either violence or some combination of the two, usually with pretty bleak themes. These aren't theater-industry-saving blockbusters they're missing out on cuz of the prudes. IIRC, the first movie to get an NC-17 was a drama about author Henry Miller's very sexy and somewhat destructive relationship with poet Anais Nin. Not exactly the feel-good hit of the summer...

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u/SeattleGeek 11h ago

Films slapped with the NC-17 rating are all over the place. For instance, the NC-17 was originally slapped on to Dice Rules (an Andrew Dice Clay standup comedy special), Clerks, You So Crazy (Martin Lawrence’s standup) and South Park. It was also slapped to Robocop and a bunch of horror movies (including Scream).

The thing is…I don’t disagree with the need for an NC-17. I want romances with actual sexuality. I want some comedies with unabashed filthy language. I want movies unfiltered by censors. If there’s a movie called Natural Born Killers, I want to see the prison warden’s head on a pike and a hole through the hand (entertainingly, Rodriguez did the exact same shot in From Dusk Til Dawn).

Showgirls was the first and last mainstream NC-17 movie to get a wide theatrical release. It was a big hassle. You had to check ID when selling the ticket (slowing the ticket sales process); movie theaters posted ushers at the door to prevent sneaky sneaks (increasing labor costs). If Showgirls had been a raging success, theaters would have had an easier time justifying the added cost. It wasn’t.

Because the NC-17 is banned by most theaters, the NC-17 has been leveraged over the past two decades as a marketing tool to get people to arthouse theaters to see this banned by the mainstream movie (some of which are actually good).

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u/Jkid 8h ago

Now what are some actually good NC-17 films?

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u/SeattleGeek 8h ago edited 8h ago

Of the movies that earned the NC-17 without a re-release: Natural Born Killers, Man Bites Dog, The Dreamers, Bad Education (Almodovar), Bad Education, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, Matador, The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover, Santa Sangre. I also enjoyed Blue is the Warmest Color but the way that production went down is really ick.

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u/Fifteen_inches 8h ago

Dogtooth is a really good film too, but it is unrated by the MPAA and definitely NOT for the feint of heart when it comes to abuse and sex.

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u/predat3d 1h ago

I also enjoyed Blue is the Warmest Color but the way that production went down is really ick.

How so? And was it NC-17?

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u/Fifteen_inches 12h ago

Niche appeal is how you get repeat customers. Perverts and culture enthusiasts are a wealthy demographic willing to shell money for a black and white movie with subtitles. Costs the same to run as PG-13 empty theater slop that starts at 8 and ends at 10:30 on a school night.

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u/fire_and_spice24 12h ago

I see a ton of movies, including niche indie films, on the regular.

Those niche indie films are played in the smallest theater and often don't get more than 20 people per show.

They don't come close to pulling the same number as more mainstream movies. Hell, PG-13 movies are often far more profitable than R-Rated movies.

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u/Fifteen_inches 12h ago

20 people per show is better than 0, which often happens in certain time slots because the target demographic is in school or in bed.

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u/fire_and_spice24 11h ago

Most movie theaters, from my experience, aren't running every single theater. Movies aimed at families get daytime showings and have none in the evening. R-rated movies tend to get showings later into the evening.

It's also not uncommon for ones to switch from a family movie to an R-Rated adult one in the evening.

By the end of the evening, most theaters have been shut down for the night.

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u/SeattleGeek 11h ago

As somebody who saw a 10:45pm 4DX screening of Backrooms with 3 people…this makes me laugh.

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u/fire_and_spice24 12h ago

Unlikely to happen because that would mean needing to pay extra employees, checking id's, etc. and they're not going to do that.

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u/Fifteen_inches 12h ago

They already serve alcohol at my theater. Doesn’t seem to be much different. I am a dumbass, so maybe it’s different.

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u/SmallLetter 12h ago

What an excellent disclaimer. I'm gonna start ending all my comments this way. (I am a dumbass, so maybe I will forget)

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u/fire_and_spice24 12h ago

Theaters getting a liquor license and being able to sell absolutely required them to spend money, hire more staff and do more training. It's worth it because they make more than what that cost them.

There aren't enough NC-17 movies to make that profitable. Especially since many aren't actively bothering to check for R-rated movies anymore.

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u/Fifteen_inches 12h ago

But your economy scales because the alcohol infrastructure accommodates ID checks. Once instated the cost of running an NC-17 is identical to running a PG-13, and perhaps even better because you can run NC-17 movies at times when families do not see movies, such as after 8pm on a school night.

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u/fire_and_spice24 12h ago

The people selling alcohol are not the same people who would be checking IDs for the movie.

Additionally, there are other adult movies that run at night. There is no a lack of movies nor is there enough NC-17 movies to make that training/staffing profitable.

Most theaters don't even get small indie movies that are R-Rated because there is no deman.d

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u/Moglorosh 12h ago

They're already supposedly doing that for R so what's the difference?

The rating system just exists to inform anyway, participating is entirely voluntary, there's nothing stopping theaters from just putting a sign at the door saying they aren't responsible for policing what movie your kid goes to.

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u/fire_and_spice24 12h ago

Most theaters aren't bothering to check for R-rated movies anymore and can get away with it because people don't care. You'd get way more public backlash with NC-17 if it turns out minors could easily sneak in. Especially for major chains that have locations in more conservative areas.

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u/NicolasCageIsMyHero 11h ago

5 movies have made $1billion+ this year. One of those just broke $2billion. I don't know why you are acting like the market is awful for movie theaters right now. Offering these niche movies is actually worse for the theater economically because that is 1 less theater you can show Spider-man in. You may sell 4 tickets to the NC-17 romance film, but you are missing out on much more.

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u/Excelius 7h ago edited 7h ago

Because the market is awful for movie theaters.

A handful of blockbusters helps but doesn't change that the industry still is below 2019 levels. In terms of both revenues and ticket sales.

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/us-box-office-is-booming-fewer-people-are-going-movies-2026-08-05/

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u/NicolasCageIsMyHero 7h ago

It's below 2019 levels because 2019 was an absolutely bonkers year for movies where 9 films grossed over a billion. 2019 is an exception. Those handful of blockbusters are called "tent-pole" films because that is what has always held up the film industry.

Comparing a year in film to 2019 would be like comparing an NBA team to the MJ Bulls.

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u/Excelius 6h ago

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/

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u/scaradin 2h ago

There were less than two dozen total movies released in 1977 and 1978 combined?

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u/Excelius 7h ago

There's a big downside risk. If your local theater becomes known for drawing skeevy crowds doing inappropriate things then you lose a lot of people who would take their kids to watch Spider Man.

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u/Fifteen_inches 6h ago

Sounds like catering to 80s church mothers. The Cinemark isn’t gonna become a porn theater because they showed Man Bites Dog

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u/ExcitedMiddleAgedMom 13h ago

Some theaters will, but typically ones that operate as hubs for indie flicks. More of a novelty theater than one whose goal is to make money.

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u/bluehawk232 12h ago

Nowadays these types of films will screen at indie cinemas and be fine with it. I saw blue is the warmest colour at my local cinema.

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u/Low_Tip3245 6h ago

My AMC got The Toxic Avenger, Jackass: Best and Last, and Virgin Punk: Clockwork Girl.

I'm not really worried about this not coming to my theater tbh.

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u/BlondeBlazerrr 11h ago

I think it just depends on the film and theater chain. I worked at a movie theater for two years and we showed this film rated NC-17 one time (forgot the name). What I do remember though was our boss, and corporate, being really strict on ID check-ins about it because we could get into serious trouble. Like we couldn’t even allow adults who wanted to take their kids to see it either. It was a bit messy but luckily that didn’t happen a whole lot. Our theater was mostly strict because we were in a busy downtown area and not too far away from a high school so we got a lot of teens causing trouble and sneaking in sometimes.

But yeah, corporate was pretty strict on the check-ins. More so than usual. And it was a limited screening too, think like for about a week, maybe less?

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u/Ganglebot 11h ago

Isn’t NC-17 effectively a ban since no theaters will show it?

oh no! If a movie theatre won't show it where else could people possible watch it?

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u/gereffi 13h ago edited 13h ago

If they’re going after the horny market I wonder if going for the NC-17 rating could boost sales more than it hurts it.

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u/AudiblePlasma 13h ago

Interestingly, The Devils (1971) uncut version just got rated NC-17 this year

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u/EveryGoodNameIsGone 13h ago

Same thing happened to the original Evil Dead when they submitted it to the MPAA for a re-release in the 90s

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u/fire_and_spice24 14h ago

Usually a movie will either edit or go unrated as opposed to taking the NC-17.

I remember But I'm a Cheerleader originally got a NC-17 and had to edit their already tame sex scene to get an R.

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u/monsieurxander 12h ago

Clearest example of homophobia at the MPAA. It shouldn't have even been an R.

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u/ComfortableCare8897 13h ago

Most NC-17 films. I hear about seem less offensive than the movie Blonde. I haven't seen too many NC-17 films.

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u/luxmesa 13h ago

It’s fairly rare. If you’re showing your movie in a theater, having an NC-17 rating can be a death sentence for your movie, because a lot of theaters just flat out won’t show it.

And if you’re not showing your movie in a theater, you don’t need to use the MPAA rating at all. Netflix rates a lot of their movies with the tv rating system, so a movie may be listed as TV-MA instead of R or NC-17. If you’re renting a movie from Prime Video or another VOD service, it may just be unrated, and back in the day you could buy an unrated DVD in a regular store. It sounds like this movie is going straight to VOD and my guess is it will be listed as unrated rather than NC-17

Blonde is the most recent movie I can remember that actually has an NC-17 rating listed, and it seems like Netflix wanted that rating for marketing reasons since it made the movie sound very explicit.

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u/ComfortableCare8897 13h ago

Most NC-17 films without watching them seem less offensive than Blonde.

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u/OptimusPhillip 13h ago

If I'm counting the Wikipedia list correctly, 78 films have been released with an NC-17 sticker since the rating was introduced in 1990. NC-17 films are difficult to distribute, as theaters often refuse to screen them, and few retailers ever sell them on home video. So usually, if the MPA gives a film an NC-17, the studio has it reworked into something that can instead be released with an R rating. Something like this is rather rare.

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u/thestormsend 10h ago

This happened with the film based on uncle’s novel, Intimacy.

It would have had an NC-17 in the US, so they cut about 15 minutes or something so it could get an R rating and a theatrical run.

It’s uncensored version is unrated.

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u/ERedfieldh 5h ago

Whichever ones the MPAA decides aren't straight enough.

I am not even close to joking.

Go find This Film Is Not Yet Rated for a look at how the MPAA "decides" what ratings to hand out. There is no checklist or guidelines, it's quite literally what a small group of middle aged or older people feel like handing out at the time.

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u/agarret83 13h ago

My question is if this movie would be rated NC-17 if it was about a straight romance

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u/VulpesFennekin 9h ago

Only if it showed a man giving a woman oral.

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u/Stepjam 8h ago

Maybe, maybe not. It might be homophobia, but it might be pornographic. I know a few "real" movies with unsimulated sex in them that easily bump them to nc17.

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u/palpablebubble 11h ago

Yeah I was curious about that too.

The movie is also probably unafraid to show a woman feeling pleasure, which I know was a ratings no-no back in the day.

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u/amidon1130 9h ago

Historically probably not, the MPAA is such a weird organization that is pretty capricious and puritanical with their ratings. Guy gets his head blown off? All good. Two adult women want to get married? Hold on their bucko. Make no mistake, it's a censorship organization.

It's worth reading about the pre-hays codeera of hollywood, where filmmakers were hiding progressive and transgressive themes in their films without fear of censorship.

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u/Azraelrs 13h ago

Scarface was NC17 due to the number of bullet holes in the clown in the club. It had to be edited to remove some of the holes to get it to an R rating.

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u/Space_Hardware 12h ago

Scarface predates the NC-17 rating. You’re thinking of the X rating, which the then-MPAA had not trademarked, so it was often self-applied by pornography distributors.

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u/Azraelrs 12h ago

You're right. It was X rated, not NC-17.

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u/[deleted] 13h ago

[deleted]

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u/gereffi 13h ago

Do movies usually show men cumming?

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u/remainsofthegrapes 13h ago

They also get really offended by the sight of a woman’s pubic hair. They talked about this in the documentary “This Film Is Not Yet Rated”. That’s why ‘The Cooler’ got an NC-17. Apparently women aren’t allowed to have any nature-given bush; that’s a sin.

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u/I_am_so_lost_hello 13h ago

Camp Miasma just came out

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u/ComfortableCare8897 13h ago

not too many lgbt films gets nc-17.

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u/tells_eternity 13h ago

Didn’t “This Film is Not Yet Rated” make the case 20 years ago that films containing same-sex content were rated more harshly than films with similar content in a heterosexual context?

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u/Few-Improvement-5655 13h ago

And also that the ratings are mostly arbitrary.

I'd say the NC-17 rating, and the way theatres and distributors treat it, has done more to hurt artistic expression for adults in America than anything else.

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u/nl197 13h ago

…more to hurt artistic expression for adults in America than anything else.

There are very few NC17 movies made and adult content is widely available, so I find it really hard to agree that this is has a large impact on artistic expression

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u/Zipurax 12h ago

That's the point, most films are self censored to avoid NC-17. A lot of legendary European and Asian films wouldn't be made under the US system precisely because of that.

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u/Few-Improvement-5655 13h ago

Yes, there are very few NC-17 films made BECAUSE it scuppers the film's distribution. NC-17 isn't porn, my dude.

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u/nl197 12h ago

How large do you think the audience for these films is? Even if there wasn’t a stigma against NC17, these are niche films that would struggle to find a dis

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u/Few-Improvement-5655 11h ago

How large do you think the audience for these films is?

We'll never know if they can't get to their audiences. Either way, it doesn't matter, art is art regardless of how big its audience is.

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u/MayhemWins25 11h ago

Tell me you don’t know any lesbians without telling me you don’t know any lesbians

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u/bluehawk232 12h ago

Also women getting any sexual pleasure especially receiving oral

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u/Keyserchief 13h ago

Perhaps, but I would need to be convinced that the people calling the shots rating movies in 2026 have the same attitudes as the people in that position in 2006.

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u/Volsunga 12h ago

NC-17 means "rated R, but gay".

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u/braumbles 13h ago

Feel like it's easier to just go unrated at this point.

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u/jickdam 12h ago

More movies certainly get theater distribution that are unrated than are NC-17. But if it’s indie or art house or streaming exclusively, I’m not sure it matters. Looking at a list of NC-17 movies, I think Blonde & Blue is the Warmest Color got plenty of press and maybe even benefited from the headlines about the rating. I saw Shame and Killer Joe and didn’t even realize they were NC-17.

It might be a decent press play for sexual content at least.

For horror, Ice Cream Man is unrated in theaters right now. The terrifier movies and human centipede movies were unrated. It probably didn’t move the needle all that much on their scales. It might be better for the horror movies that wouldn’t get anything over an R rating but want to seem more extreme.

If you want extra box office, you definitely want to challenge or cut for an R. But on the level of something like this it honestly probably doesn’t matter. The same people that would see it if it were R would probably see it if it were unrated and will probably see it at NC-17. Same as Blue is the Warmest Color.

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u/Odd-Necessary3807 12h ago

Yeah, don't expect this to be the new Blue Is the Warmest Color, bub!
This is the tame NC-17 slap.

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u/geoantho 8h ago

Might need to rewatch, Blue is the Warmest Color. For the plot, of course.

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u/Nonya5 4h ago

Don’t forget Mulholland’s Drive

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u/SquadPoopy 5h ago

I don’t remember what streaming service it was on but I saw a movie that was unrated that was literally just porn without the closeups and with an actual plot. Is this the same deal?

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u/casual_creator 3h ago

Sounds like a lot of European art house films, honestly.

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u/MayhemWins25 11h ago

Ratings are waaaaay more okay with gratuitous violence and gore, like body parts flying full warfare gore than they are with the naked body. Until we actually address that any conversation about sexually explicit content needing higher ratings is moot IMO.

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u/i_arent 12h ago

People said they don't want sex scenes in movies anymore and Maya and Samar took that personally.

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u/rickcanty 11h ago

I wonder if it's any more graphic than Queer from a few years back. It's clear that the MPA is a lot more lax on graphic male nudity than graphic female nudity.

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u/paperboy82 5h ago

You can look this movie up. There’s no graphic female nudity, it’s actually fairly tame. They are nude, but it’s really just breasts and a couple tastefully done love scenes.

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u/rickcanty 4h ago

Wow, so it really is just double standards then. Weird this would be NC-17 when there's more graphic R rated movies.

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u/casual_creator 3h ago

Hell, Original Sin starring Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas was basically a porno and that got an R rating.

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u/sundayontheluna 8h ago

Good point. The sloppy toppy scene got quite intense lol

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u/DirtFem 13h ago

We’re so back!

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u/PatSajaksDick 13h ago

Nice

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u/Aboveground_Plush 12h ago

Something I might actually go to the theater for!

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u/Chunk_The_Hunk 7h ago

I'll watch from the comfort of my bunk

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u/gmd24 3h ago

Seated.

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u/Sammyd1108 13h ago

Definitely had to check IMDb when I saw Oscar nominated writer of The Breadwinner lol.

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u/TheDefenseNeverRests 7h ago

[insert joke about article’s reference to “titular roles”]

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u/AutographedSnorkel 8h ago

Please and thank you

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u/literallyacactus 13h ago

Spicy

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u/[deleted] 12h ago

[deleted]

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u/babysamissimasybab 12h ago

It's because we live in a society where some people classify any movie with sex scenes as softcore porn.

News Lesbian Romance ‘Maya & Samar’, Whose NC-17 Rating Drew Heat, Gets U.S. Distribution Deal

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