Smoking in the Movies
Text Descriptions of Images
- This infographic shows that tobacco incidents in 2019 youth-rated (G, PG, PG-13) movies decreased 22%, from 1,258 to 987. Incidents in movies rated G or PG increased from 17 to 108, and incidents in movies rated PG-13 decreased 29%, from 1,241 to 879.
- PG-13 movies that were tobacco-free decreased to 57% (28 of 49 movies) from 62% (38 of 61 movies).
- Youth-rated movies delivered 4.3 billion tobacco impressions to theater audiences—a 58% decrease from 2018.
- Tobacco incidents in 2019 movies rated R increased 63%, from 1,610 to 2,631, and R-rated tobacco impressions increased 214%, from 6.2 billion to 19.4 billion.
- Performance by movie studio varied.
- Independent studios more than doubled the tobacco incidents in their youth-rated movies, from 10.9 incidents per movie in 2018 to 22.9 per movie in 2019, the most per youth-rated movie.
- Comcast’s Universal averaged 11.8 incidents per youth-rated movie in 2019, second-highest in the industry but 67% fewer than the 35.8 incidents it averaged in 2018.
- The Walt Disney Company and Viacom’s Paramount also reduced youth-rated tobacco content, while AT&T’s WarnerMedia and Sony increased it.
- Independent movies delivered 53% of youth-rated tobacco impressions to in-theater audiences in 2019 (2.3 billion of 4.3 billion) and accounted for only 15% of R-rated tobacco impressions (2.9 billion of 19.4 billion).
- Disney (941 million) and Sony (655 million) together delivered 37% of youth-rated impressions. Comcast delivered 9% (399 million), and ViacomCBS delivered 1% (5 million).
- AT&T (7.3 billion) and Sony (7.1 billion) together delivered 74% of in-theater R-rated impressions, ViacomCBS 4% (1.5 billion), Comcast 2% (477 million), and Disney less than 1% (89 million).
- This graph shows that the total number of tobacco incidents in movies has fluctuated over more than 20 years, ranging from a low of 1,612 incidents in 1998 to a high of 3,947 incidents in 2005.
- A 5-year reduction to 1,824 incidents reversed in 2010.
- After exceeding 2,500 incidents from 2011 to 2014, tobacco incidents in 2015 returned to a level somewhat below 2010, then rebounded to 3,163 incidents in 2016 and 3,618 in 2019.
- Tobacco incidents increased to 3,618 incidents in 2019 from 2,868 incidents in 2018, with the only decrease occurring in movies rated PG-13.
- Movies rated G and PG accounted for 3 of every 100 (3%) tobacco incidents in 2019, up from 1% in 2018.
- Movies rated PG-13 accounted for 24 of every 100 (24%) incidents, down from 43 of every 100 (43%) incidents in 2018.
- Movies rated R accounted for 73 of every 100 (73%) incidents, up from 56 of every 100 (56%) incidents in 2018.
- The number of tobacco impressions delivered to domestic theater audiences reached 30.1 billion in 2005, decreased by half over the next 5 years, nearly doubled to 27.2 billion in 2012, fell to a historic low of 9.3 billion in 2015, and then rose to 23.7 billion by 2019.
- From 2010 to 2014, tobacco impressions delivered by PG-13 movies more than doubled, decreased 74% from 2014 to 2015, returned to 2010 levels in 2016 and 2017, doubled in 2018, and fell below 2016 levels in 2019.
- R-rated impressions fluctuated between 5.4 billion and 12.9 billion between 2002 and 2018, then rose to a historic high of 19.4 billion in 2019.
- R-rated movies delivered 82% of all tobacco impressions in 2019, the highest proportion of all in-theater tobacco impressions since at least 2002.
- While still only 3% of all tobacco impressions, the number of tobacco impressions delivered by movies rated G and PG was six times as large in 2019 as in 2018, and 44 times as large as in 2017.
- Most of the 80% decline in tobacco impressions delivered by youth-rated movies from 2002 to 2019 is explained by a decline in smoking in movies with larger budgets (more than $50 million).
- The nearly 60% decrease in tobacco impressions delivered by youth-rated movies from 2018 to 2019 is almost all due to a sharp decline in audience for PG-13 rated movies claiming to be based on actual events but typically depicting many invented characters smoking. Movies of this character rated R contributed to the increases in R-rated tobacco impressions in 2019.
- Movies of all ratings delivered 23.7 billion tobacco impressions to moviegoers in 2019, up 155% from the 21st Century low of 9.3 billion in 2015.