The Exorcist No one younger than 18 may see an 18 film in a cinema.

Adults should be free to choose their own entertainment. Exceptions are most likely in the following areas:

• where the material is in breach of the criminal law, or has been created through the commission of a criminal offence
• where material or treatment appears to us to risk harm to individuals or, through their behaviour, to society. For example, the detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts, or of illegal drug use, which may cause harm to public health or morals. This may include portrayals of sadistic violence, rape or other non-consensual sexually violent behaviour
• which make this violence look appealing; reinforce the suggestion that victims enjoy rape or other non-consensual sexually violent behaviour; or which invite viewer complicity in rape, other non-consensual sexually violent behaviour or other harmful violent activities
• where there are more explicit images of sexual activity in the context of a sex work (see right) In the case of video works, which may be more accessible to younger viewers, intervention may be more frequent than for cinema films.

BBFC

This week The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey nudges it's way past the $1 Billion world box office taking mark making it 15th film that has made it past the milestone.

This is an interesting group of films but the group is becoming less and less elite as time goes on, like the magic $100 million mark of time past.

The first film to manage the feat was Titanic back in 1998, and it held the record as the only film to have done it until 2003 when The Return of the King managed it. Since then, and with the introduction of 3D where you are charged more for your ticket, we have had 13 other films make the grade.

Of the 15, 8 had a 3D releases as well as a 2D release, 4 were released in 2012, 2 have made over $2 Billion, 1 made it over the billion mark after it's 3D re-release last year, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and 1 was released in about 6 different formats.

The $1 Billion club is bound to grow and grow so chart watchers are now looking for the next flurry of films to make over $2 Billion, a hard task of which only 1 film has truly made it without a re-release, but that had a 3D tax, Avatar.

These figures are not adjusted for inflation in ticket prices, this is a hotly debated subject, but it is generally accepted that the highest grossing film of all time if ticket sales had always been at today's prices would be Gone With the Wind, whic would today gross $3.2 Billion at the box office, in fact the top 15 would look something more like this

1. Gone with the Wind
2. Avatar
3. Titanic
4. Star Wars
5. The Lion King
6. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
7. Jurassic Park
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
9. Jaws
10. The Exorcist
11. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
12. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
13. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
14. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
15. Independence Day

The American Library of congress has added Airplane! and what is arguably the best of the Star Wars movies, The Empire Strikes Back, to the National Film Registry in a year where both films lost key legendary figures

The great Lesley Nielsen turned from a serious actor into a legendary comic actor in Airplane! who died at the end of November and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was directed Irvin Kershner who died just one day before.

These 2 additions are joined by 23 other film which includes classics such as The Exorcist, The Pink Panther, which also lost its director, Blake Edwards, this year and Saturday Night Fever.

The creator of Star Wars, George Lucas, has two connection with the list, The Empire Strikes Back which he wrote and produced and THX1138 which was his feature film debut.

The full list of additions is as follows:
Airplane! (1980)
All the President's Men (1976)
The Bargain (1914)
Cry of Jazz (1959)
Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB (1967)
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The Exorcist (1973)
The Front Page (1931)
Grey Gardens (1976)
I Am Joaquin (1969)
It's a Gift (1934)
Let There Be Light (1946)
Lonesome (1928)
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
Malcolm X (1992)
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)
Newark Athlete (1891)
Our Lady of the Sphere (1969)
The Pink Panther (1964)
Preservation of the Sign Language (1913)
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Study of a River (1996)
Tarantella (1940)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
A Trip Down Market Street (1906)