WILL BULLY CONTROVERSY SHAKE UP MPAA RATINGS SYSTEM?

The controversy over The Weinstein Bros.’ Bully could “turn out to be a pivotal chapter in the battle to overhaul the Motion Picture Assn. of America’s ratings system,” Los Angeles Times columnist Patrick Goldstein wrote today (Thursday). Goldstein noted that although John Fithian, head of the National Association of Theatre Owners, had warned that theaters […]

BULLY A HIT IN ITS FIRST WEEK

Despite its being released unrated, The Weinstein Co.’s controversial documentary Bully rode the wave of its controversy to a $115,000 opening in five theaters over the weekend — or $23,000 per theater, a huge amount for any nonfiction flick. The studio said that it will add Toronto to the list next Friday and expand into […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: BULLY

The Weinstein Co.’s Bully is garnering some of the strongest reviews of the year, with several critics stepping out of their roles as appraisers and becoming advocates for it — many of them condemning the Motion Picture Association of America for its decision to slap the film with an R-rating because of language. (The Weinstein […]

AMC CHAIN WILL PERMIT CHILDREN TO SEE BULLY WITH PARENTAL OK

The AMC movie chain on Tuesday said that it will allow children under 17 to see The Weinstein Co.’s Bully documentary if they receive written permission from their parents or if the parents speak to a ticket seller via their children’s cellphone. The theater chain has posted permission slips on its website. (They are also […]

BULLY GOING OUT UNRATED

Harvey Weinstein is making good on his threat to release his documentary Bully next weekend in New York and Los Angeles without a rating, after the decision by the Motion Picture Association of America’s ratings board to slap it with an R-rating because of the repeated use of the f-word. Ads for the film appearing […]

CONGRESSMEN ENTER BULLY BATTLE

Twenty members of Congress have reportedly signed an online petition started by a high-school student asking the MPAA to set aside the R rating for Bully, the theatrical documentary about teenage bullying due to be released later this month by The Weinstein Company. The bipartisan group of congressmen, led by Democratic Rep. Mike Honda of […]

MPAA SURVEY: PARENTS WANT F-WORD BARRED IN PG-13 MOVIES

The MPAA has commissioned a survey of U.S. parents to determine whether they wish the organization to overlook bad language — in particular the use of the F-word — in assigning ratings to films, the Los Angeles Times reported today. It quoted Joan Graves, who heads the MPAA’s ratings board, as saying that the survey […]

WEINSTEIN TAKES THE BULLY PULPIT

Harvey Weinstein is ratcheting up his battle with the MPAA and theater owners over the R rating his soon-to-be-released documentary Bully has received because of language. On Tuesday Weinstein responded to a letter from John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners, who wrote that if Weinstein refuses to submit future films to […]

WEINSTEIN LOSES BATTLE WITH MPAA OVER BULLY

Harvey Weinstein is so furious with the decision by the MPAA’s appeals board to uphold the R rating for The Weinstein Co.’s documentary Bully that he’s threatening not to deal with the MPAA “for the foreseeable future.” The MPAA released a statement quoting Joan Graves, who heads the organization’s ratings group, as acknowledging that “Bully […]

WEINSTEIN TO APPEAL RATING FOR BULLY DOC

Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of The Weinstein Co., plans to fight the R rating meted out to the Lee Hirsch documentary Bully, which deals with what the filmmaker calls the bullying crisis in American schools that has scarred the lives of countless children and resulted in numerous suicides. The film purportedly includes several utterances of profanity […]