as a less-stigmatized alternative to the X, which was the previous “Adults Only” rating for American movies. While X was initially treated like any other rating, and the X-rated even won the Academy Award for Best Picture, it was quickly co-opted by the porn industry. Pretty soon it was synonymous with smut and, more importantly, legitimate theaters refused to book X-rated movies because they did not want to be associated with that stigma.
While porn never got into the habit of advertising its products by hyping up their “hot NC-17 rated action,” the rating nonetheless suffered much the same fate as the X. NC-17 just became a classier code for X. Movie theaters and large video stores like Blockbuster refused to carry NC-17-rated movies, which made it commercially unviable. Within a few years of its introduction, the NC-17 was basically dead.