the nc-17 rating is very rare because most retailers, newspapers, advertisers, streaming service providers (like hbo), and movie theaters refuse to stock, air, or premiere nc-17 rated content. for this reason, movie directors view the nc-17 rating as a death sentence because almost nobody will watch their film so what most directors do is they go back and edit their movies to which the mpaa told what scenes or content gave them the nc-17 rating so they would either cut the scene entirely or modify it to a lesser-form, and submit the movie for a classification again in which most of the time, they successfully get the r-rating. some examples of nc-17 rated films include "henry &amp; june" (1990) and "showgirls" (1995). films are given the nc-17 rating primarily due to their use of sexual activity including nudity, whereas a few of them are given the classification because of their extreme violence that is too cruel to be allowed in an r-rated film.