R-rated megahits draw teens - but not ID checks

When 16-year-old Carey, dressed in her school uniform, stepped up to the window to ask for two tickets to "The Matrix Reloaded" (rated "R: under 17 not admitted") on Friday, she received a steely glare. After a pregnant pause came the question, "For which showing, ma'am?"

It wasn't the question she had feared ("May I see some ID?"). Nor was it the one mandated by the National Association of Theater Owners, which requires ticket sellers to check IDs and theater owners to police multiplexes for underage theater hoppers.

The ease with which Carey and her 12-year-old brother, Danny, waltzed into an R-rated film is all the more telling, since it comes during a summer when Hollywood has resurrected a throwback from a decade ago. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger's rampaging Terminator, the R-rated blockbuster is back.

Since Congress took Hollywood to task in 2000 for marketing sex and violence to teens, PG-13 had become the rating of choice for studios.

Does the first increase in the number of R-rated blockbusters in five years mean that Hollywood has abandoned its target summer audience? Or does the prevalence of films like "Terminator 3" and "American Wedding" indicate that teens are once again gaining access to supposedly off-limits fare?

This past weekend, the Monitor set out to test the resolve of theaters on both coasts by sending out underage teens to infiltrate "The Matrix Reloaded" (with parents' permission). The $150-million sci-fi movie has generated much talk about whether a film with such a huge budget is taking a risk by posting an R rating that ostensibly puts it off-limits to the largest moviegoing demographic.

But the Monitor's results - as well as the movie's record-breaking pace at the box office - offer at least anecdotal evidence that teens are having little trouble seeing any adult fare they choose.

"Certainly the number of [R-rated] tent-pole films designed to draw all ages is far bigger this year than in the past," says Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, which analyzes box-office trends. "This will be the biggest test of the voluntary policing system yet." It highlights "the temptations and the inherent limitations placed on theater owners, many who are financially hurting."

In Beverly, Mass., 14-year-old Chase C. was denied a "Matrix Reloaded" at two theaters but got into the movie in each case by buying a ticket to a PG-13 film and then switching theaters once past the ticket puncher.

"You can easily sneak in," says Chase, who has previously sneaked into "Phone Booth" and "Road to Perdition" using the same strategy. "Some of the people who work here are teenagers, so they don't really care. Sometimes [the ushers] know we sneak in and they don't say anything."

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