'Black Panther' Gets Official Rating

With Marvel Studios latest film less than a month away, new details are starting to come to light about the film including it's rumored runtime and, now, it's official rating.

The Motion Picture Association of America just rated Black Panther for theatrical release, bringing it in line with every other Marvel Studios film to date with a PG-13 classification.

The news came from Exhibitor Relations, which also unveiled the reasons behind the rating:

"Violence" is pretty much par for the course on any Marvel Studios release, which are basically backed with action sequences from open to close, peppered with the occasional foul language. And don't expect Captain America to warn everyone whenever a cuss word slips out.

But "a brief rude gesture"… what does that mean? A middle finger? Or something worse?

Marvel movies rarely toe the line of "mature content," preferring to let the intense fight scenes earn their PG-13 ratings. There's barely any sexual content aside from a kiss or some casual flirting, but other than that the films are very tame.

We're unlikely to see a Marvel film proper get an R rating, as studio president Kevin Feige prefers to maintain similar tones throughout each movie. Plus, that cuts off most of the younger audiences while Marvel movies capitalize on that demographic, marketing products and action figures to children.

That's not to say Marvel will not take the plunge at some point in the future, especially with Disney's planned purchase of 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets. They've already released two bonafide R-rated films with Logan and Deadpool, and more are on the way.

Should Marvel incorporate those franchises, there will likely be some alterations to the game plan to accommodate for the success of Fox's R-rated superhero films.

But for now, parents shouldn't have to worry too much about taking their kids to see Black Panther, even in spite of the vague warning of a rude gesture.

Black Panther premieres in theaters on February 16th.