I believe the big change in style of movies started with the PG-13 rating as that really put a red flag to the summer movie. BladeRunner was R, Star Wars was PG, Terminator was R, Raiders of the Lost Ark was PG, that sounded right. I wouldn't take my nephews to Bladerunner, but I would take them to SW in 1977.

What PG-13 did is it forced studios to cut back to get that PG rating, and I believe that hurt many summer movies. ESB would have been PG-13, and I believe they may have toned it down in fear of losing kids for merchandising, etc.

Now with PG-13, there is an age # that every parent must think about, and every studio must think about, and I think that causes fear of the whats called the target audience these days. Back in the day as a kid, I went to PG movies that may have been alittle too adult for me, but it didn't kill, and I didn't go to R movies, and I believe they were simpler times, and the movie quality reflected it.