Smoking in Top-Grossing Movies—United States, 2010

July 15, 2011 / Vol. 60 / No. 27

MMWR Highlights

Changes in Onscreen Smoking Incidents in Youth-Rated Movies (2005–2010)

• Total number of onscreen tobacco incidents in youth-rated movies: 595 in 2010 versus 2093 in 2005
• Total incidents decreased 71.6% from 2005 to 2010
• Average number of incidents per youth-rated movie: 6.8 in 2010 versus 20.1 in 2005
• Average incidents per movie decreased 66.2% from 2005 to 2010

Smoking-Reduction Policies

• Only three of the six major studios have a published, written smoking reduction policy in place
• Those studios had reductions in tobacco use depictions in youth-rated movies between 2005–2010 ranging from 91.5% to 98.9%

The three major studios and Independent studios with no published, written smoking reduction policy had reductions ranging from 26.4% to 62.7% in the same time period