In his new role in Hollywood, Hays' main task was to stop American state censor boards from banning movies that were too dirty to be shown. He also had to keep costs down for the movie studios for changes made to give a movie an acceptable rating. At that time, the movie studios were required by state laws to pay the censor boards for each foot of movie that was cut out. Studios also had the expense of making different versions of each censored movie for each state's different ruling.