Smoking in top-grossing US movies, 2012

New data on the level of smoking in movies in the US in 2012, obtained by counting tobacco incidents in all 140 movies whose box office ranked in the top 10 for at least one week, show total tobacco incidents per movie rose 45% between 2011 and 2012, the second year of increase after five years of decline. Tobacco incidents rose 54% per G, PG or PG-13 rated movie and 13% per R rated movie. The continued growth in onscreen smoking in youth-rated movies underscores the need to R rate movies with tobacco imagery, establishing an industry-wide market incentive to keep youth-accessible movies tobacco-free.