In your opinion, can film censorship be used as a form of publicity to increase market interest?
–Alex Rimmer
I can only answer in terms of the U.S., where "film censorship" usually equates with getting an "NC-17" rating, which makes it difficult to book theaters and advertise.
While there’s some tradition of a distributor milking a ratings fight for publicity (SHOWGIRLS, DOGMA, CRASH), I’m not convinced the drama puts any more butts in seats opening weekend. Rather, I suspect that the number of patrons attracted by the controversy is largely offset by the number turned off. And it’s important to remember that most of the movies branded NC-17 receive the rating for sexual content, which is difficult to market beyond a certain level anyway. The attendant controversy only highlights the sexual aspect of the picture.
For truly tiny movies that might otherwise get no publicity at all, talk of censorship might be an effective strategy. But for most movies, trying to generate controversy this way seems ill-advised in my opinion.