Posted on 03/18/2008 10:27:51 AM PDT by Between the Lines
More than 20 years of data is in – and the conventional wisdom is wrong.
The chances a Hollywood movie will win big at the box office are greatly enhanced by a family-friendly rating and strong moral content, defying the notion the entertainment industry is merely serving up what consumers want when they produce so many R-rated movies full of foul language, sex, drugs and immorality, shows a new study by the Christian Film and Television Commission, publishers of Movieguide.
According to the study, G-rated movies averaged nearly $92.2 million, more than 438 percent better than R-rated movies, making only $17.1 million.
"Our annual report to Hollywood shows once again, with relevant financial statistics, that people, including most moviegoers, want good to conquer evil, truth to triumph over falsehood, justice to prevail over injustice and beauty to overcome ugliness," explains Ted Baehr, the president of the group. "They also want to take their whole family to the movies more often (assuming, of course, that ticket prices, concession prices and gasoline prices don't get too high or prohibitive). And they want to see their religious faith respected and celebrated."
Last year, seven films with a G or PG rating earned more than $100 million at the domestic box office, and three PG-rated films ("Shrek the Third," $322 million; "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," $216 million; and "Alvin and the Chipmunks," $213 million) were among the year's top 10 earners.
Only one R-rated film made the top 10, and it was No. 10, "300," with earnings of $210 million.
No. 11 on the list was G-rated "Ratatouille" with $206 million.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
G-rated Horton Hears a Who just got $45M over the weekend.
“Star Wars” Trilogy, “Passion of the Christ”, etc. etc. etc.
But then, one of my favorite movies is “UHF” so what do I know, LOL
They should clean up at the Oscars/sarc
Bad analogy...R-rated films are only intended for a specific audience thus will make less money, the only exception I know of is Passion of the Christ.
I’ve read this before.
Hollywood makes more money with family friendly movies. So why do they pump out more filthy movies that do poorly at the box office?
Answer: To further their agenda.
Well . . . yeah.
It’s nothing new. If you read the original script for what became “Casablanca” it was raw enough to make “Brokeback Mountain” look tame. The Warners loved the concept of the play (refugees in North Africa) but did not think a movie centered on adultery, betrayal, and selfish desire would sell many tickets.
They changed it to the version beloved today — a movie about unselfish love and sacrifice. Does anyone think that if they stuck to a script that had Rick and Ilsa behaving like rutting pigs oblivious to the impact of their actions on others would be a movie that is still valued today?
This has been the situation for many years and is well known in Hollywood. I have no idea why anyone whould invest in an R rated film rather than in a g rated production. The potential payout for r is very limited.
2007 top box office:
1 Spider-Man 3 Sony
2 Shrek the Third P/DW
3 Transformers P/DW
4 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End BV
5 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix WB
6 I Am Legend WB
7 The Bourne Ultimatum Uni.
8 National Treasure: Book of Secrets BV
9 Alvin and the Chipmunks Fox
10 300 WB
11 Ratatouille BV
12 The Simpsons Movie Fox
G movies will always have the higher probability of drawing larger audiences because they can pull from a larger population of people. That and of course if you want to clam your kids down for 90-minutes you don't take them to the new blood and guts horror movie, the drama which puts them to sleep, or the techno triller that they couldn't follow unless you updated them every 5 minutes.
I agree, but “The Postman Always Rings Twice” (the Garfield/Turner original, not that Nicholson/Lange abomination) still holds its value.
A lot of people forget that we really need both types of morality plays. Without one, the other wears easily and fades fast.
That is really the only rational answer that one is left with.
I got the impression that “300” was bad, too violent, explicit, etc. I liked it very much when I finally watched it. It is violent, explicit and cruel but the message was outstanding and to me that is the strength of this movie. The objectionable things didn’t at all distract. The men’s muscular development was also something to behold and I learned that they had a special workout to get that way.
They get it. They just refuse to accept it. It’s actually interesting and a little surprising because it demonstrates that their ideology is more important to them than money. Makes the industry more dangerous too, imo - I’d like them better if money was their number one god rather than liberalism.
They get it just fine, that’s why they’re making G-rated movies. They also get that there are 300 million other people in the country, and some of them don’t want to see G-rated movies.
Last movie I went to the theater for....Cars.
Wife's last movie was Shrek the Third.
We wait for the DVD. Last two DVD’s? Hang Em High (replacing my VHS’s) and 101 Dalmatians.
Of course there’s still plenty of adultery, betrayal and selfish desire in the movie. Rick’s basically a rotten SOB (with a seriously wicked sense of humor) until the last 5 minutes of the movie, and even then in 4:30 of that last 5 minutes he’s still ACTING like a rotten SOB, it’s only the final reveal is his real plan that redeems his character.
They are not comparing apples and oranges - they’re comparing dollars and dollars - and, since family friendly movies get more dollars, so why don’t they make more?
The answer is “Because they don’t want to.”
So the real question is “Why doesn’t Hollyweirdstan want to make more profitable family movies?”
Such people are idiots. Anyone with intelligence and a love for film enjoys seeing anything excellent, regardless of its rating.
Silliness (on WND’s part). There are probably far more “R” movies than “G” with many being small arthouse indie releases that pull down the average revenue. Compare the top five “G”’s with the top 5 “R”’s and see what you get.
I only think this because I graduated with a kid who is now a “producer”. He is how I described above. It's easier to create a fantasy than to deal with reality.
That’s why boycotts never work.
Just saw “National Treasure: Book of Secrets”
Fun movie.
They aren’t idiots, they have their taste in movies. A lot of G-rated movies stink, recently the quality has gone up but I grew up in the time when G-rated meant Apple Dumpling Gang and other simply atrocious Disney (and others, but usually Disney) movies. It took a few really great movies like Toy Story to retrain my instinct, and even then there’s still some pretty serious crud that comes out in G, stuff with talking animals.
I went with a bunch of friends to see 300. Of the group, two (including me) were vets. Myself and the other vet hated the movie and everyone else loved it.
Boycotts of the movie industry have problems because it’s a huge industry. Nearly $10 billion domestically at the box office last year, hard to put a serious dent in that.
However, if the “family” films are about hip hop culture or are filled with poopy-farty jokes, we don’t want to take our kids to those, either.
I don't go see movies myself, but I've heard that 300 got rave reviews. Why did you vets not like it? Too radically different of a style of warfare?
ping
Rather be dipped in acid then watch brain-dead films.... I like my Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Sin City, etc. movies....
I am not buying any of this.
1- huge accounting problems
a- foreign distribution is not included
b-dvd sells are not included.
c-costs are not included.
2-Markets are efficient- why hasn’t some buy bought a film studio fore the purpose of producing high rated g films?
there is no entry problem. Anyone can make and distrubte films.
3- theaters just want more customers and will put anything in the theaters.
Mr. Bean’s Holiday: Rated G in DVD. It is a riot for all ages. Very clean. Very silly. Family entertainment.
Transformers and Spiderman 3 were not G-rated, they were PG-13.
I hated Spiderman 3 because the characters were slef absorbed crybabies,
I loved Transformers for its positove message and attitude towards our military.
“No sacrifice, no victory.”
They didn’t humanize the villian, it was classic good guy vs bad guy.
Only an idiot would despise excellence in film, regardless of rating.
Maybe you should read past the first sentence.
They’re going to ruin GI Joe.
The article is comparing dollars to dollars. The fact that more R movies were made yet they grossed less shows that the R rated movies are not as good as an investment.
Shrek, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Ratatouille were intended for a specific audience also.
Dont read this either.
Movie fans flock to patriotic, moral films
Surprise! Moral movies draw 7 times the fans
Soap opera star tells of life transformed by God
'Gilligan's' star teams up with 'Pastor Greg'
Family movies best, Hollywood realizes
Disney lay-offs mean R-rated films out
Disney boycott suspended
Judge's decision kills family-friendly flicks
Study: Moviegoers prefer patriotic films
Movieguide awards honor best family films
Study: Movies with explicit sex don't sell
Box office tells Hollywood to 'come clean'
More than 20 years of data is in – and the conventional wisdom is wrong.The chances a Hollywood movie will win big at the box office are greatly enhanced by a family-friendly rating and strong moral content, defying the notion the entertainment industry is merely serving up what consumers want when they produce so many R-rated movies full of ...crap.
I could have told them that. And it goes back further than 20 years. And that 'notion' is bull hockey. It's the 'notion' of Hollyweird degenerates, perverts and the Gay Mafia that's taken over the studios - like Disney. Old Walt has been spinning in his grave for years.
Ever since the Production Code (Hayes Code) went bye-bye utter filth has filled the big screen. Last night I threw in the tape of the Maltese Falcon. Thank God the Code was in effect and the Producer couldn't say,
'You know, that scene would be much better if we showed Bogie's butt Re-shoot that with his pants off. And we just have to push the Gay angle of Joel Cairo's character. Make him kiss someone, like Wilmer.'When an actor gets paid $1 Million extra to show his butt in a movie (like Mel Gibson used to), you should know there's a problem.
Indeed. I took my whole family this weekend to see the film that reminds moviegoers that "A person's a person, no matter how small."
Abstinence Counts with Moviegoers!
Jesus Almighty! Five-Year Study Shows Moviegoers Prefer Movies with Very Strong Christian Worldviews
The three movies you cite are basically case studies in "brain-dead films."
Entertaining, violent, action-packed, etc. - but not very intellectually challenging or thought-provoking.
I responded to your only pertinent comment. Your point about there being great quantities of bad G-rated movies is useless, since there are also many bad PG and R-rated movies...and your opinion of The Apple Dumpling Gang and other Disney fare doesn't interest me at all.
Horton hears a Who is the funniest movie I have seen in FOREVER. Clean humor is great. People actually applauded after the movie. Don’t see that often. What was great to see all the young couples there to see without kids even. There is slapstick humor that only adults can find funny, while mixed with silly for the kids to enjoy. But the ‘adult’ humor wasn’t sexual in any way. Like the “Is this Burt from accounting?”
well, this is a no brainer. I would guess kids go to more movies a year than adults. And I think kids are more likely to go to second viewings. Look what teen girls did for Titanic. Therefore, a good G rated would out draw a good R rated. I just don’t see the issue here.
Probably for the same reasons that superchic fashion houses limit their runs of exclusive items to 1,000 handbags or 500 pairs of shoes, even though they could probably make more money by mass-producing.
Because designers and filmmakers think of themselves as artists first and businesspeople second.
Not much potty humor in Horton hears a who.
Example of ‘adult only’ humor is when Horton is spraying himself with his trunk and adjusts the stream to the changing streams in special shower heads.
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