Avoid The Dreaded G Rating / Live-Action Films

• According to a retirement interview with MPAA chairwoman Joan Graves, the defunct distributor Trimark Pictures (then known as Vidmark) aimed for an R rating for all their direct-to-video releases in the 1990s, and as such would often resubmit them to the MPAA with added F-bombs.
• The video packaging and theatrical reshowings of 2001: A Space Odyssey are now labeled "Unrated", even though it was one of the films originally rated G in 1968. The scenes of Moonwatcher beating the enemy tribe's leader to death, and Frank Poole asphyxiating in space, would certainly give it a PG or even a PG-13 rating if it were submitted today. The film also features uses of "damn" and "hell," two words seldom, if ever, uttered in G-rated films today.
• The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle has a few things scattered throughout, most notably an instance of "damn" and a brief shot of the antagonists in a hot tub, that seem to be in awareness of this trope.
• Inverted and lampshaded in "Ali G, Innit". In one sketch, Ali G explains that he's determined to get an '18' rating, so he says the word 'cunt'. This initially worked, but since it came out the language restrictions have been loosened such that that word can appear in something rated 15. Since this was the only thing that warranted an 18 for Ali G, Innit, it was promptly re-rated 15.
• The Amazing Panda Adventure: The infamous scene where Ryan and Ling have to strip down to remove the leeches they've gotten covered in, leading to awkward wisecracking about being naked, serves no other apparent narrative purpose than to get the film a PG rating.
• The Andromeda Strain (1971) carries the VERY conspicuous content warning on its poster and trailer, "Rated G but may be too intense for younger children." Ostensibly this was a heads-up to parents about scenes containing corpses and brief nudity (both in a medical context), but considering how hard the marketing pushed the film as a mature science-fiction thriller filled with suspense and existential terror, it seems just as likely the warnings were so prominent in order to dispel any impression from moviegoers that the G rating meant the film was "soft" in that regard.
• The 1982 movie version of the musical Annie had Rooster say "You goddamned kid" to deliberately avoid being rated G. This is on top of the title character herself being put on a perilous situation not unlike the original comic strip it was (loosely) based on.
• The French dub of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has Grandpa George drop the F-bomb when expressing disagreement of Charlie suggesting he open his birthday present the next day. In the original version, he just says "like hell."
  • The original version was likely rated PG for said use of "hell" above, as well as a use of the word "retard".
• Arrival, as cerebral and downright warped as its treatment of its First Contact theme is, is remarkably discreet in its intensity, especially when compared with other films like it. It would probably fit right at home alongside similarly cerebral sci-fi films rated PG, but a lone Precision F-Strike uttered by Jeremy Renner's character bumps it up to a PG-13 - not that it would appeal to most under that age to begin with.
• The Artist included a character Flipping the Bird to bump it up to a PG-13.
• The film The Astronaut's Wife got an 18 rating in Ireland and the UK. Y'know why? Johnny Depp says "cunt". Once. There are a few "fucks" too, but there is no major violence or nudity that would warrant an "adults-only" rating otherwise. However, the Irish iTunes Store labels it with a 15 rating, so maybe the IFCO have changed their minds since.
• It is amusing sometimes to see the content warning next to a ranking to see how they justify it. For instance, Batman Begins is rated 12 in Britain and contains 'moderate horror and violence'. The Dark Knight was attacked by some for being rated 12 as well, thanks to it seeming more brutal than it is.
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice's original 3-hour cut unexpectedly received an R rating for its violent content, even though Zack Snyder was shooting for a PG-13. The shorter theatrical cut received such a rating, but when the original cut was released to home video (labeled the Ultimate Edition), the film could have easily been released unrated, but Warner Bros. chose to keep the R rating to drum up publicity, even though it just barely qualified.
• The opening scene of Be Cool invokes and lampshades this phenomenon. While telling his friend about how stupid the MPAA system is, Chili says to him "Do you know that unless you're willing to use the R rating, you can only say the F-word once? You know what I say? Fuck that." That's the only time the word is uttered throughout the film - which received a solid PG-13.
• Averted with Big. The movie got a PG rating despite one usage of the word "fuck".
• Black Christmas (2019) was filmed intending to get an R-rating, but Sophia Takal changed her mind and cut thirty minutes of footage to have it rated PG-13 in the hopes of appealing to teenage girls. It's quite noticeable by having shots cut away before showing anything graphic and Kris's Pre-Mortem One-Liner "Hey, professor, such my clit" becoming an awkward Curse Cut Short.
• The Borrowers could have been G if not for one clear use of the word "damned".
• Inverted in the case of the 2011 film Bully. The producers wanted a PG-13 rating so the documentary could be shown in schools and so that kids could go see it without requiring a parent present, but due to a single scene with multiple F-bombs it got rated R. This caused a huge uproar and a ton of complaints directed at the MPAA. Eventually they were forced to lower the number of F-bombs in that one scene to get the PG-13 rating.
• The 1995 Casper film had some gratuitous language ("Damn", two instances of "What the hell?" and "Bitch") inserted to give it a PG rating (though the premise of death and reincarnation alone probably would have done it).
• The producers of Chariots of Fire felt that an utterance of the word "shit" in its dialogue would keep the film from a G rating.
• Christopher Robin marks the first Winnie the Pooh project to ever get a PG rating despite the previous movies getting a G rating and the cartoons getting a TV-Y rating. Then again, this isn't the only time it’s happened to a lighthearted franchise like this. The PG rating presumably comes from a 10 second clip showing Christopher Robin fighting in a battle in World War II, because there's nothing else that would definitely push it into PG territory. Averted in Australia, where the film was rated G for "Very Mild Themes."
• The American theatrical trailer for Chungking Express advertised the film as having a PG rating, but the film would eventually come out with a PG-13 rating for "some violence, sexuality and drug content". It is possible that the film was originally rated PG, before getting re-appealed to a PG-13 at the last minute.
• Inverted for The Craft, which tried to get a PG-13 rating to appeal to the teen crowd, and so avoided any bad language or violence, with the worst scene being a character with self harm scars getting her wrists cut again, and there's minimal blood. Sex is referenced, but there's only one makeout involving the characters fully clothed. However, it got slapped with an R because it featured teenage girls dabbling in witchcraft.
• Movies based on works by Dr. Seuss:
  • The live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas! movie got a PG by having a cleverly snuck-in use of the word "bitchin'".
  • The Cat in the Hat is an example of this trope gone too far, having several Curse Cut Short moments, hidden innuendos, and sexually suggestive moments that would probably give Beetlejuice a run for its money. There's also a Fun with Acronyms moment where a vehicle's original name would spell out a curse word (but it's never said), and a moment in which the Cat calls a garden hoe "dirty", all of this which almost ended up making the film PG-13. The Seuss estate was not happy with this and put a kibosh on all future live-action adaptations of Dr. Seuss works.
• Eddie (1996): Though Siskel & Ebert disagreed on the actual film, Gene Siskel cited the Whoopi Goldberg movie's only real reason for being PG-13 was an unexpected Precision F-Strike and that he didn't understand why they did that. Roger Ebert's answer was that the filmmakers believed people would either ignore it or not be interested if it was only PG.
• Even in 1977, many regarded the "G" rating as a warning for schmaltz, being beautifully lampshaded in Close Encounters of the Third Kind when Brad responds to his dad's offer to take them all to see Pinocchio, "Who wants to see some dumb movie rated G for kids?" The film itself is rated PG, with a lone use of the word "shit" used to bump up the rating.
• Inverted in the case of The Conjuring. James Wan shot the film with a PG-13 rating in mind, and it shows, with very little in the way of profanity (one "shit" and a few "damns"), sexual content (a mild reference or two), and violence (a couple of gory scenes, but fairly restrained in comparison to some other PG-13 rated horror). Yet, it was rated R, the official reason being "for sequences of disturbing violence and terror," but one of the film's producers said it was simply too scary for a PG-13. Didn't stop it from becoming a Sleeper Hit.
  • If anything it may have helped the movie's box office prospects. It's hard to imagine better free advertising for a horror movie than "The only reason it's rated R is because it's too scary to be PG-13."
• The original 1996 film adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma added the word "bitch" (describing a female dog) to escape the G rating.
  • The 2020 adaptation has a brief scene where Mr. Knightley slips his trousers off, with the camera lingering on his bare butt for a few seconds. This did not work in the UK, where it got a U despite the presence of “brief natural nudity.”
• Eighth Grade inverted this trope. It received an R rating because of a few F-bombs and a scene discussing about oral sex, which director Bo Burnham was disappointed about since he felt the film's message was important, and its target audience won't be allowed to watch it by themselves. Fortunately, distributor A24 offered a free, unrated screening in each U.S. state for a day.
• The use of the insult "penis breath" (along with maybe the "Uranus" joke) in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, as well as a few "damn"s and a "shit", was Spielberg specifically gunning for the PG rating. Ironic, considering the first line was removed in the infamously Lighter and Softer re-release (the one best known for the walkie-talkie guns).
• In an inversion, a minor controversy erupted over the religious-football movie Facing the Giants receiving a PG rating, as it was rumored that it was the result of the explicit Christian content (though more likely it was the football violence and themes concerning infertility).
• Flubber had one instance of "damn" inserted just to earn the film a PG rating. When the film aired on The Wonderful World Of Disney, it had the word seamlessly removed to bring it back down to TV-G.
• The Live-Action Adaptation of Garfield has one use of "damned" in order to give the film a PG rating.
• The movie Girls Just Want to Have Fun is almost squeaky clean, save for the moment when Drew tricks a lady into letting him touch her breasts.
• Good Burger got a PG rating thanks to an instance each of "ass" and "sucks" being thrown into the movie. When the movie aired on Nickelodeon, these words were replaced by "butt" and "stinks" respectively.
• For much the same reasons as The Queen (i.e., a total lack of appeal to persons under 18 years old), one of the characters in Gosford Park gratuitously uses cluster F bombs on the phone to drive the rating up to an "R". Director Robert Altman was known for doing stunts like this; he wanted R ratings for his films even though the content of some of them often didn't merit it, so he threw in some F-bombs.
• John Waters thought any chance for Hairspray's success was ruined when it got a PG rating and didn't have time to modify it to target his usual adult audience. Instead, the lighter approach made it a major success, although he has had issues with people mistaking his other movies for family fare without looking at the rating.
• The fact that The Happening was M. Night Shyamalan's first R-rated film was a huge marketing point. Despite there being very little gore (plenty of off-camera violence and Gory Discretion Shots here) no sex or nudity, and to memory, two swear words: "pussy" and "bitch".
• In America, the 1997 biopic The Harmonists gained an R rating purely for some quick shots of nudity. Other than that and some intense scenes, the film otherwise contains no real objectionable content, and sex is neither shown nor discussed.
• The sixth Harry Potter film was rated "PG" after the two previous installments had merited "PG-13". In the UK, contrary to the trend seen so far on this page, it retained the same 12/12A rating as the fourth and fifth films. Despite the rating, it was arguably the most violent and frightening of any of the movies up to that point. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was later released in ancillary markets as a PG-13. The Harry Potter series is an interesting case, because its ratings history is very messy. The first two films were still considered candidates for a PG-13 rating, and were rated accordingly in countries like Finland, Austria, New Zealand, Brazil, and Peru. Also, Goblet of Fire, Deathly Hallows Part 1, and Deathly Hallows Part 2 were reportedly all edited to an extent from an R/15 rating, Mike Newell and various other sources citing "some scenes of violence and emotional intensity" as reasons for the films' near R classification. Deathly Hallows Part 1 was even briefly and officially labeled as a 15. Prisoner of Azkaban also ended up receiving an M rating in New Zealand and Australia and the equivalent in many other countries.
  • It's likely the infamous scene of naked Harry and Hermione making out in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was added to further its PG-13 rating (though it was also likely added to keep the parents of the tween girls in the Potter fandom in the theaters).
• Averted with Head, rated G despite containing graphic footage of the execution of Nguyễn Văn Lém and generally being much stranger and Darker and Edgier than the series it capped off. Although the fact that it was one of the first films to ever be rated G may have played a part in this reputation, it’s still well-earned.
• A racial slur briefly used in the movie of The Help is what mainly gives it a PG-13 rating, but like Stranger Than Fiction, the whole pie scene probably would've put it in between PG and PG-13, so the racial slur was probably added to push it over.
• Hidden Figures was rated PG, despite the filmmakers likely aiming for a PG-13 with the occasional use of words like "shit." Because of this, schools felt more comfortable taking students to see the film on field trips.
• I Know What You Did Last Summer is pretty tame for an R-rated horror film - featuring no nudity, only implied sex between Julie and Ray, and mostly a Gory Discretion Shot. The studio insisted on a couple of more violent scenes to get the R-rating and ape the success of Scream (1996) - such as Max getting killed with a hook through the chin, and more blood when Elsa is killed.
• Indiana Jones occasionally says swear words ("shit" several times across his movies, what may be a severely muffled "fuck" in Raiders of the Lost Ark) probably for this very reason, just to make absolutely sure that movies featuring people melting, people on fire, people getting stabbed by walls, beating hearts being ripped out of chests, rapid aging, and exploding lightning Nazis would not be shown to small children. Most advertisements played up the film's connection to George Lucas, which didn't help much.
• Invictus would probably be PG for sports-related violence and a few curse words. A Precision F-Strike, used by the team captain as motivation, got it a PG-13.
• The King's Speech, a biopic about Prince Albert, the Duke of York; later King George VI, and his struggle with stuttering. It was rated R after two scenes that involved a Cluster F-Bomb. Other than that, there's no violence or sexual situations. Without the cluster F-bombs, or any of the other swear words briefly stated, this film could've been rated PG.
  • In the UK, it was originally classified as a 15 rating. The distributor appealed this - as is always their right. The BBFC reconsidered, taking into account the non-aggressive, non-directed and therapeutic use, and re-rated to a 12/12A with the warning "Contains strong language in a speech therapy context".
• La La Land was rated PG-13 solely for "some language." It's believed that it would have actually gotten a PG rating (if not a G rating) were it not for a single F-bomb uttered by Ryan Gosling's character.
• The Little Rascals (1994) was given a PG rating for rude humor, most notably the "Finders keepers, losers suck!"/"Oh, bite me!" exchange and Alfalfa losing his underwear in a pool.
• According to director James Mangold allowing Logan to be R-rated was important, not so much for violent content, but for style: "For me, what was most interesting in getting the studio to okay an R-rating was something entirely different. They suddenly let go of the expectation that this film is going to play for children, and when they let go of that, you are free in a myriad of ways. The scenes can be longer. Ideas being explored in dialogue or otherwise can be more sophisticated. Storytelling pace can be more poetic, and less built like attention-span-deficit theater." That being said, it actually got lower ratings in France (-12 with warnings) and French Canada (13+) in spite of all the violence and profanity.
• Inverted for The Lovely Bones, whose book counterpart was infamously graphic, with two pages devoted to Susie's rape and murder at the hands of Mr Harvey, frank discussions of sex, and a sequence where Susie possesses Ruth and uses her body to sleep with Ray. The film version was toned down to be more family friendly so the filmmakers' teenagers could watch, partly out of necessity, to spare the 14-year-old Saoirse Ronan having to perform said scenes - the horror is only implied, Susie doesn't realise she's dead at first, all sex scenes are removed, and the scene with Ray is changed to just a kiss. This was also in an attempt to appeal to Academy voters, but didn't quite take.
• The found-footage horror movie Lucky Bastard earned an NC-17 because the plot took place on the set of a porn film. During a Q&A following the film's NYC premiere, co-writer Lukas Kendall recalled how the MPAA offered to suggest cuts to qualify for an R rating - many of which were contextually ridiculous. (One example: a sex scene at the four-minute mark that, despite showing no genitalia, much less penetration, featured "skin on skin contact." An incredulous Kendall retorted "But that's what happens during sex!") By the time the film got to the seven-minute mark, the MPAA notes had grown so long that Kendall and film-making partner Robert Nathan threw up their hands in disgust and accepted the NC-17. They went on to write a stinging indictment of the rating and why it needed to be abolished.
• The film adaptation of Madeline had Lord Cucuface yelling "Damn!" and one of the girls playing with Helen the cook's bra to bump it to a PG rating.
• Woody Allen's 2014 film Magic in the Moonlight is quite mild in content, especially for a Woody Allen film, with only some references to past affairs, occasional mild language and historically accurate racial stereotyping and smoking to worry about. It would have been PG, were it not for a throwaway line in the first few minutes where a character says he might be accused of sodomy.
• Averted with Mission to Mars: Despite a sequence where an astronaut is ripped to bloody shreds by a powerful dust storm vortex, the film still somehow got slapped with a family-friendly PG (although the film itself does not share that demographic).
• A brief Cluster F-Bomb in a tirade by Louis B. Mayer to Herman Mankiewicz towards the end of Mank bumps it to an R rating. Aside from that, there is nothing that could not be accommodated at PG-13 (and, indeed, it was rated at the equivalent in many other countries).
• Mrs. Doubtfire has a brief scene where Robin Williams' character (cross-dressing as Mrs. Doubtfire) names off a number of sexual euphemisms at a restaurant table, solely to earn the film a PG-13 rating versus a PG. This turned out to be an issue in the UK, where the British Board of Film Classification rating up from PG at the time was 12, not allowing anyone under the age of 12 to view the film in cinemas solely based on this same scene. This led to several local authorities overturning the BBFC's decision and theatre managers describing turning away families "in tears."
• The Muppets (2011) was rated PG for "mild rude humor", which might have gotten it a G had it come out in The '80s.
• According to Sally Field, who produced and starred in Murphy’s Romance opposite James Garner, most studios passed on it because it had no sex or violence. What kept it from a PG rating, you might ask? A Precision F-Strike used in the sexual sense. This initially led to an R rating based on the MPAA's language rules, with some of the film’s posters even showing it as such, but it was unanimously rated PG-13 on appeal.
• My Dinner with Andre was not submitted to the MPAA at all, perhaps for this reason. There is very little in this movie that would place it past a PG rating, but at the same time it is a very philosophical, cerebral film only suitable for a mature audience.
• Gramercy requested Tom Servo say "shit" a couple of times in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie to bump up to a PG-13. Some sexually suggestive and drug-related jokes helped get the rating, as well.
• Inversion: the 1971 Elaine May / Walter Matthau film A New Leaf (which May co-wrote and has since disowned) was given a G rating, in spite of the fact that "damn" was used several times, "son of a bitch" twice, and there was a scene of one of Matthau's suitors about to take off her bikini top.
• Nomadland has a brief scene with the lead character Fern (played by Frances McDormand) relaxing in a river fully nude to earn the film its R rating. Aside from that one moment, there's practically nothing risqué about the film.
• Ocean's Eleven has two noticeably gratuitous F-bombs, (though one is clearly Played for Laughs being used by Yen, who doesn't speak English) contrasting the rest of the movie, which is squeaky-clean. Apparently it was added to secure a PG-13.
• The Parent Trap (1998) is rated PG simply for "mild mischief." This may be because Disney didn't want children copying the elaborate cabin prank, but one can't help but wonder if the line "marriage isn't just about sex, is it?" and the scene where one of the twins asks for a sip of wine were inserted simply to secure a PG rating.
• Planes, Trains and Automobiles has Steve Martin drop a Cluster F-Bomb to give the movie its R rating. John Hughes specifically wrote it in because he feared audiences would mistake the movie for another of his teen-oriented comedies. And the exchange is held by critics and fans as one of the comedic highlights of the film.
• The Australian movie Playing Beatie Bow bears the PG label on the DVD cover. The reason? Abigail says "Oh, shit" towards the end. It even feels forced, as otherwise the movie is clean (and based on a YA novel to boot)
• Pokémon Detective Pikachu is the first film in the Pokémon universe to receive a PG rating^note For context, all anime-based movies were rated G or, in the case of direct-to-video films, not rated at all, and it shows. The violence is much more realistic than what we're used to, characters die on-screen, there are moments of profanity (a first for Western adaptations of the franchise), and Pokémon are seen directly attacking humans or cities, the last of which is not seen explicitly in the games. Believe it or not, this actually makes the movie closer to the original generation than the current ones.
• The 2008 remake of Prom Night was given a PG-13 rating to attract a younger teen audience, and thus, was almost completely devoid of any and all blood and gore, in contrast to the original Prom Night, which retains its R-rating to this day. In Australia, the remake oddly got the same M (advisory 15+) rating that the original did. The original still carries an M rating as it was last submitted in 1985, which was before the stronger MA 15+ was introduced (1993), which it would most likely earn if it was submitted today.
• Power Rangers (2017) sold itself as a Darker and Edgier take on the parent franchise by getting a PG-13 rating, which was earned by Kimberly saying "crap", Jason saying "bullshit" and Trini saying "shit" at one point. Besides that, it's Bloodless Carnage, no nudity beyond a Shirtless Scene from Jason, and only mild Body Horror on Rita's first form.
• Psycho was originally rated M for its first reissue in 1968, which was a rough equivalent to an early PG rating. When the film was reissued again in 1984, there was an uproar over the content in PG-rated films, and the film was given an R-rating, which stands today. Later that year, the MPAA introduced the PG-13 rating, and many believe that the film would have received that rating were it available.
• The Queen is a dialogue and mood driven character study, and got a PG-13 rating. No sex, no violence. But there's a lone f-word buried in the dialog so deeply it's easy to not even notice. Not that the movie really appeals to anyone under the age of 13. Similarly and for the same reason, it was rated 12 in the UK.
• The Santa Clause achieved a PG through some sprinkled profanities and thinly-veiled jokes about LSD and phone-sex hotlines by Tim Allen. When such dialogue is censored on TV airings in the United States (the phone sex hotline joke was removed as a result of Executive Meddling), it gets a TV-G. Averted by the sequels which all have G-ratings.
• Inversion: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was originally going to have Envy's line "Shut the fuck up, Julie" uncensored, and have Stephen saying "You know how I feel about girls cock-blocking the rock", but if they did have this, it would have landed the movie an R rating (plus, the movie had mentioning of gay sex, an orgasm scene, and one use of "cock" already, so the movie was close to getting an R rating as it was), thus the F-bomb was censored, and Stephen's line was censored by amp feedback.
• The live-action Scooby-Doo movie was originally planned to have a PG-13, and be more of a teen-oriented parody relying on humor fit for college students, such as jokes about Shaggy and Scooby-Doo being stoners and Velma possibly being a lesbian. The original cut even received an R rating at first because of a single joke that referenced oral sex. However, Warner Bros. felt that in order for a Scooby-Doo film to make money, it must be marketed to kids, and the film was heavily edited down to get a PG. The film is still the tribute/parody it set out to be, just with cleaner humor. On Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network airings, the allegedly cleaner moments were toned down further, mostly via cutting a few scattered instances of mild language, to make it TV-G.
• Scream (1996) was originally given an NC-17 by the MPAA, and Wes Craven was forced to make many cuts to bring it down to an R. For Scream 2, Craven expected to be given another NC-17, so he put far more blood and gore than he wanted to have more options when it came time to cut it down. To his surprise, the film was still given an R.
• The film of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility was sneaky with this trope; the filmmakers there avoided the G rating by inserting some profanities into the background din of a ballroom scene.
• Snakes on a Plane: The movie originally was to be rated PG-13, so a scene where a couple have sex was added in to bump it up to R.
• Sneakers is not a kids' movie, nor is it exactly "light, family-friendly fare", but it has very little violence and no sex. In order to prevent the movie from getting a G (or even a PG) rating, which would have been disastrous on several levels, the directors added foul language and some references to sexuality to bump it to PG-13, including a Precision MF-Strike from none other than Sidney Poitier.
• The director of Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) was originally shooting for a PG-13, but for one reason or another, it was edited down to a PG, a rating it shares with its 2022 sequel. Only some scattered uses of "hell" and "Jesus", plus a few slightly inappropriate jokes (like Dr. Robotnik referring to the mushroom world he's been stranded on as a "piece-of-shiitake planet"), push it out of G territory.
• Spaceballs subverts it, Big-style, by containing the line "'Out of order?!' Fuck! Even in the future, nothing works!", which by all accounts should have earned it a PG-13. It squeaked by with a PG anyway.
• In the 1986 film SpaceCamp, "shit" is uttered twice, one by one of the teenagers. "Goddamn" is also said at least once. It was ultimately rated PG.
• Space Jam had the usage of the words "hell", "sucks" and "screwed" to bump up the film to a PG. A handful of jokes relying on innuendo that would fly over younger viewers' heads probably helped bump up the rating as well.
  • The sequel, Space Jam: A New Legacy, also uses the word "hell" for this same reason.
• Spencer, another emotionally intense but mainly dialogue-driven character study about a member of the British Royal Family, avoided a PG-13 rating, which would have comfortably handled its visual and verbal references to Princess Diana’s well documented mental health struggles, by way of six Precision F Strikes in the dialogue, only one or two of which are contextually important to the film. It was still rated PG-13 or the equivalent in other countries, including the UK (where it got a 12, as guidelines on bad language have relaxed slightly).
• The Spiderwick Chronicles was based on a book series aimed at younger children, but its film adaptation hoped to compete with a market that favoured PG and PG-13 fantasy films, so Jared says "hell" and "dammit" a couple of times. Lucinda also says the word "suicide", referring to herself being mistaken for self-harming when she gets injuries from the invisible goblins.
• Stand by Me is rated R simply because of several Cluster F Bombs, all of which are said by children. However, this doesn't stop it from being on lists of movies that children must see before they turn a certain age. Common Sense Media recommends it for ages 14 and up, yet most reviews from users recommend it for tweens and up, as it is rated PG in Canada. According to an interview with the film's screenwriters, they purposely wanted to avoid the dreaded PG rating, despite focusing on children, because they thought it would bring in wider audiences.
• Star Trek: Generations. Commander Data says "Oh shit" as the Enterprise started its dive into a planet's atmosphere so it would avoid a G rating. It ended up rated PG.
• In the 2001 director's cut of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the rating was deliberately pushed up to PG. The new cut is still just barely PG (even taking into account on-screen references to sexuality and oaths of celibacy). Paramount ignored this trope with the Blu-Ray of the theatrical version, opting to place a "Not Rated" tag on the packaging. In the UK it was rated U.
• Star Wars:
  • According to Hollywood legend, A New Hope came back from the ratings board with a notice that it had fallen squarely between G and PG (this despite the fact the film has a scene of dismemberment and the camera focusing on the severed limb, blood and all). The producers requested it be given the PG rating.
  • According to "Skywalking, The Life and Films of George Lucas", the shot of the burnt corpses of Owen and Beru was added to keep the film from getting a G rating
  • Inverted with the Special Edition rerelease: it's widely rumored that Greedo shooting first was added to keep the MPAA from upping the rating to PG-13 (which didn't exist when the film was originally released). Lucas has flip flopped on the subject: he has said in several post-2000 interviews that he'd always meant for Greedo to have fired first, but has also been photographed wearing a "Han Shot First" t-shirt.
• Street Fighter was aiming at PG-13, but its first pass got an R rating due to the violence. After some desperate re-editing, the violence had been scaled so far back that it got a dreaded G, so the filmmakers added a scene where Guile says, "four years of ROTC for this shit" to nudge it into the sweet spot of PG-13.
• The movie of Stuart Little got a PG rating by having the villains occasionally say "damn" or "hell."
• Related to this trope, and Rated M for Money, the horror movie parody, Student Bodies, had this scene in the middle of the film, in which an announcer appears and explains, "Ladies and gentlemen, in order to achieve an "R" rating today, a motion picture must contain full frontal nudity, graphic violence, or an explicit reference to the sex act. Since this film has none of those, and since research has proven that R-rated films are by far the most popular with the moviegoing public, the producers of this motion picture have asked me to take this opportunity to say "Fuck you."^note As an additional note: Every theatrical movie has to display the trademarked MPAA logo and its assigned Rating at some point during the film. Most choose to show this at the very end after the credits, and a few choose to show it at the very beginning prior to the studio's logo. Student Bodies showed it right after the above announcement in the middle of the film.
• Tetris (2023): Screenwriter Noah Pink introduced profanity into the script to prevent the movie from being perceived as a children's film, possibly due to the lack of on-screen violence and blood. The f-bomb alone is dropped a whopping 31 times in the film, while other swears only see usage in the single digits.
• Inverted with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974); Director Tobe Hooper tried to put as little bloodshed into the film as possible to secure a PG rating, only to initially get an X rating based on the strong menace throughout and disturbing subject matter. Several minutes had to be cut just for the director to get an R rating.
• Averted for Top Gun. Despite a fairly obvious sex scene, the film was rated PG in its original release. It did get a 15 rating in the UK before being re-rated 12 for the 3D re-release. It also got a 16 rating in Germany before being downgraded to 12 for the 2020 4K remaster.
• Topsy-Turvy would bore kids, but if you want to make it G, all you have to do is cut an optional scene with topless (and fleetingly bottomless) prostitutes. One character also uses the word "fucking" which was not in general use as a swear word at the time the movie is set (late 19th century). He immediately lampshades it by saying "Pardon my Anglo-Saxon."
• We Bought a Zoo had three uses of "shit", two uses of "asshole" and one use of "dick" (that last word is said by a 7-year-old) in order to try and push the movie up to PG-13 for language, as other than grieving over the death of a mom, the movie is pretty clean. However, their efforts did not work and the movie still got a PG.
• "White Noise (2022)" was rated R for "brief violence and language", despite the violence being quite tame for a R-rated flick (PG-13 movies have seen worse) and "fuck" is only used a couple of times.
• The Wings of the Dove takes place during the Edwardian Era and the film's tone matches its reserved and repressed setting for most of the running time. Thus, its content would likely merit no worse than a PG-13 or even PG rating. However, this abruptly changes near the end when a graphic sex scene involving two of the main characters pushes the movie firmly into R-rated territory.
• In 1970, The Wizard of Oz was reissued with a G rating. In 2013, the 3D reissue was slapped with a PG "for some scary moments," though the unaltered version retains its G. The author of this article worries that this might signal the end of the G rating.
• Won't You Be My Neighbor?, a documentary about Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, got a PG-13 on the account of a particularly salty crew member who is interviewed here.
• There was an aborted attempt in the 2000s by Moral Guardians to get classic Hollywood films like Casablanca re-rated from G or PG to R due to the fact characters are shown smoking in them.

---