Hollywood Urged To Make More Family Movies

• PostEagle
• August 19, 2013
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Hollywood, Calif. – A summer of mixed results at the box office for Hollywood movie studios has led child advocate Dr. Ted Baehr, CEO and Founder of the Christian Film & Television Commission® (CFTVC), to urge Hollywood to make more family and more family– friendly movies.

Earlier this spring at CinemaCon 2013, the large annual convention of theater owners, John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO), called on Hollywood to do the same thing.

“Both Mr. Fithian and I have noted that G and PG– rated movies make much more money than R– rated movies,” Dr. Baehr said. “Our own annual research of the box office also shows that family– friendly movies like MONSTERS UNIVERSITY and DESPICABLE ME 2, and movies with Christian content and values, Pro– American, patriotic elements, or conservative values, like 42, MAN OF STEEL, IRON MAN 3, and THE CONJURING, make more money than movies with lewd content, graphic violence, Anti– American elements, or themes promoting a progressive, left– wing sensibility.”

Last spring, Fithian said, “If exhibitors could make one recommendation to our studio partners, it would be make more family titles and fewer R– rated movies. Only two R movies made the top twenty last year, even though more R– rated movies were distributed than any other rating category.

“Our numbers suffered this year under the weight of too many R– rated movies,” Fithian added.

Fithian’s points are backed by more than 21 years of box office research by Movieguide®.

Every year during awards season at the Annual Faith & Values Awards in Hollywood, Publisher Dr. Ted Baehr presents his Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry. This comprehensive analysis of the movie box office, including home video sales, goes into detail about what audiences want – and are not getting enough of in their movie viewing.

From 1995 to 2012, according to The Numbers website, the MPAA has rated 52 percent of movies R. Those movies have generated less than 15 percent of all box office. Since 1995, G– rated movies average more than twice the box office of R– rated movies. Furthermore, family movies (which includes movies rated PG) sell up to five times more DVDs and offer opportunities for merchandise and theme parks that R– rated movies don’t.

Dr. Baehr’s Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry is published by CFTVC and its family website Movieguide® at (www.movieguide.org).

The Annual Report measures DVD and theatrical sales of movies with different worldviews and specific content. The sweet spot in box office is a great story well– told, with a good moral lesson, a positive worldview, spiritually uplifting and inspiring content honoring the biblical faith of Christians, and minimal objectionable content, like vulgarity, sex, and drugs. It also helps that a movie be Pro– American, patriotic, pro– liberty, anti– socialist, and pro– capitalist.

“Most children are still raised by two married heterosexual parents,” Dr. Baehr noted. “Also, 76 percent of Americans, and 2.3 billion people of the world’s population, identify themselves as Christian. It pays to make family– friendly movies all ages can enjoy. And, it pays to make movies that don’t insult the Christian faith, and that even have at least some explicit Christian content and values.”

Dr. Baehr will present highlights of the 2014 Report to the Entertainment Industry at the 22nd Annual Faith & Values Awards, to be held Friday, Feb. 7, 2014 at the Universal Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles near the heart of Hollywood.

For more information, please visit www.movieguideawards.com or call 1– 888– 248– 6689.

movieguide® press release