Florida Town Mulls NC-17 Ordinance : Ordinance Criminalizes Sale of NC-17 Tickets to Minors

A proposed ordinance that would make it illegal to sell tickets to minors for NC-17-rated movies moved closer to passage over the objections of theater owners and the movie industry.

City commissioners voted 3-2 Tuesday to move the proposal to a second hearing next Tuesday, a step required before the proposal can become law.

The ordinance making it a crime to sell NC-17 tickets to children under 17 would carry a $500 fine.

Gail Markels, legal counsel for the Motion Picture Assn. of America, called the commission’s decision troublesome and said she wasn’t sure how her organization would respond.

“We do share the same goals and objectives of protecting children from harmful matter,” Markels said. “If we’re aware of a problem we will talk” to theater owners. “There is a remedy.”

Markels said the association wants Kissimmee to trust theater owners to follow the voluntary guidelines of the rating.

Other governments agencies across the country have tried to prosecute theater owners for allowing minors in R-rated movies in the last two decades, but the cases were struck down, she said.

NC-17 means no children under 17 are allowed even if they are accompanied by parents or guardians.

It is a voluntary rating established by the association in September under pressure from filmmakers, film critics and theater owners to establish an adults-only rating distinguishing films with adult themes from hard-core pornography.

Universal Pictures’ “Henry & June,” released last month, was the first movie to receive the rating. Previously, even movies with artistic merit were lumped into the X-rating.

Owners of the three movie theaters in Kissimmee, which borders Walt Disney World and the MGM and Universal studios, said a special NC-17 ordinance would be pointless because they don’t plan to show those movies.

Thomas Martin, manager of Kissimmee’s Osceola West Theatres, read a statement to commissioners pledging his theater will not show NC-17 movies.

But most of the 60 spectators appeared to back giving the rating the force of law.

“I would encourage you gentlemen to consider the values of this community,” said Jim Book, a minister who said he was representing Osceola County Ministers for Conservative Values. He said rejecting the ordinance would mean “a Pandora’s box will be open.”