Why are some rated "R" movie trailers green and some red?

Because it's not about the content of the movie, it's about the content of the trailer. For an example, go to You tube and search for the Superbad trailers. The R rated trailer is so different from the PG rated one that was shown on the air and on nothing but trailers...

Green is an all audience approved trailer for an Rated 'R' movie. Red is for a restricted trailer for an 'R' rated movie.

I've seen a GREEN trailer for the NC-17 movie "A dirty Shame"

Yes, "Green" means in effect the Trailer itself isn't "rated R" .......

Theaters rarely, if ever, show the red restricted trailers. They could very easily before R rated movies, but most are afraid trailers may get shown on the wrong screen, so they don't risk it.

For a great look into how they come up with these ratings, check out "This Film is not yet Rated" a must see for all movie buffs. http://imdb.com/title/tt0493459/

I'm curious - are there more restrictions on the red trailers in terms of nudity/foul language than you'd have in an R film? I just don't seem to ever recall seeing that in a trailer, but perhaps I should look!

I don't recall any either, but I believe the standard for a restricted trailer is the same as that of a restricted movie.

I know that I have seen 'R" rated trailers that contain nudity.

Most definitly have seen trailers with nudity if they are red band.

Until more recently, I worked as a projectionist for years for a larger (at that time) theater chain. Fact is studios rarely ever shipped us red band trailers. When we got them we always put them in front of our R rated movies.

So why do the networks show fairly racy trailers for their more adult prime time shows with most of the gore and sexuality in early prime-time? In other words, the TV-14 promo with TV-14 content being shown in a TV-PG program or local newscast at 6:00 PM?

I think I've seen the red trailers before in theaters.

TV ratings have nothing to do with film ratings. TV ratings are assigned by the network. The network decides what promos to run and where on their own without any outside influence.

Film ratings (including for trailers in terms of green or red band) are assigned by the MPAA's rating board.

I once saw an R-rated trailer before a PG-rated movie. (The movie was the original "Hairspray"... I don't remember what the trailer was for.) I particularly remembered it because I noticed that there was a family with kids there. But then they left during the opening credits.

Edit: Oh, I remember this more clearly now -- One of the parents (having come, apparently, without any idea what they were going to watch) had asked me in the lobby if the movie was OK for kids, and I said, well, it was rated PG. Then the R-rated trailer came on and made a liar out of me. That's why it stuck with me.

I worked in a movie theater that had just been built, just opened... and for our first batch of films we only had a couple of trailers... so all the movies we showed at first got the same trailers.

We had a Friday the 13th trailer (PG-13 trailer fortunately) running on a Disney movie. It was kind of strange.

We had lot of trailers shipped from the various studios all the time, many more than we could actually use. Home office would dictate what trailers went on what movies. Numerous times they just weren't thinking and we had to pull a trailer, that was green band, because we got complaints that it was inappropriate for the feature.

You know, I wonder if we have reporters lurking around getting ideas for columns...either that, or perfect timing. Interesting tidbit about the development of 'yellow' trailers as well...

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...-entertainment

Oh, not you. I was thinking more that someone was lurking, saw the topic, and said, ah, Eureka, there's my Friday column.