Posted on 03/18/2008 11:29:02 AM PDT by Between the Lines
Hollywood, Calif. – A new five-year study of the Top 250 movies at the box office shows that movies with very strong Christian worldviews earn the most money.
They even outperform movies with lots of foul language, sex and nudity.
The new study was released today by the Annual Movieguide® Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry, which just held its 16th Annual Awards Gala Tuesday evening, Feb. 12, at the glamorous Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.
“The Good News is that the bad news is wrong,” declared a joyous Dr. Ted Baehr, Christian theologian and founder of the annual awards show, whose team of social scientists, film scholars and theologians does a comprehensive annual study of the top movies at the box office and their content.
“Sex, nudity, obscenity, and profanity don’t really sell that well, especially in extreme forms,” Dr. Baehr added, “but movies with very strong Christian worldviews do three to 11 times better than movies with sex, nudity and foul language. They also perform much better than movies with very strong non-Christian, immoral, false, or even anti-Christian worldviews.
“Moviegoers want to see movies with very strong Christian content. They want the Savior to overcome the darkness, Truth to triumph over falsehood, Justice to defeat injustice, and Beauty to overcome ugliness: They want the Good News of Jesus Christ.”
The kind of movies that are nominated for the MOVIEGUIDE® Awards are not just movies with strong or very strong moral or biblical content, like ENCHANTED, Dr. Baehr pointed out, but also movies with a strong or very strong Christian and redemptive worldview, such as AMAZING GRACE, SPIDER-MAN 3, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, CINDERELLA MAN, MILLIONS, THE NATIVITY STORY, I AM LEGEND, NANCY DREW, SUPERMAN RETURNS, WORLD TRADE CENTER, LAST HOLIDAY, FACING THE GIANTS, THE NINTH DAY, LADDER 49, THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, THE LORD OF THE RINGS movies, A BEAUTIFUL MIND, FINDING NEMO, THE INCREDIBLES, SPIDER-MAN, EVELYN, MINORITY REPORT, THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, LUTHER, CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN, SPY KIDS 3D, THE PATRIOT, THE BASKET, JOYEAUX NOEL, REMEMBER THE TITANS, and ROAD TO REDEMPTION). This means that the movie’s whole point of view and philosophy was strongly, or almost completely, Christian, with strong redemptive themes.
In fact, in the last five years, movies with a very strong Christian worldview earned more than $73 million per movie, but movies with a very strong atheist, agnostic, non-spiritual, or anti-spiritual worldview averaged only $19.3 million.
Very Strong Worldviews Compared, 2003-2007
Very strong Christian worldview, 54 movies, Avg. Box Office of $73,033,027 Very strong non-Christian, unbiblical, immoral, or false worldviews, 287 movies, Avg. Box Office of $19,309,992
Movies from 2003 through 2007 with very strong spiritually uplifting worldviews (earning more than $73 million per movie) also earned three to 11 times more money than movies with excessive or explicit sex and nudity and excessive foul language, which only averaged between $6.3 million per movie at the lowest end of the scale to only $27.7 million per movie at the high end of the scale.
Movies with no Christian content whatsoever averaged between $21 million per movie to $26.4 million per movie from 2003 through 2007.
Why won’t Hollywood wake up? Christianity is where the money is.
While checking out the celebabes I read a blurb about how the recent Hollywood 'war movies' all bombed even with big-name stars.
The author was really dumbfounded that movies with great stars with Anti-American themes and drunken disorderly soldiers were not drawing an audience.
I cannot stand the video games either. god of War is one that comes to mind. Pure crap.
It’s not about the money - it’s about destroying the traditions of our country.
Everyone support Ben Stein’s EXPELLED
April 18.
Also, must contain 2 of the following 3. Nudity, violence, and adult language.
Also, if its animated there is a good chance I will watch it.
Garbage in - garbage out.
I’ll pick my entertainment, you pick yours.
I'm really looking forward to this. I would love to get a group of church friends to go. I just hope it will be shown in an area theater!
There are only so many ways to say Poo Poo Head. After awhile it’s time to spank the kid and send him to his room.
My comment did not refer to entertainment.
Also, must contain 2 of the following 3. Nudity, violence, and adult language.
Also, if its animated there is a good chance I will watch it.
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Does the 2 out of 3 rule apply to the animated flix as well?
No, they don’t require a “Christian” world view as much as a moral world view.
No, the rule does not apply to animation.
I am certain that all of the horror/slasher films are included in the un-Christian category.
Most of these movies are aimed at a specific audience (young males) and they don't expect to do great box office, just great among that segment.
These movies will continue to get made so long as they take more in than they cost to make, and so long as they do well among the desired demographic.
Hollywood is not going to go out of its way to lose money just so they can turn us all into evil secular humanists.
I am a firm believer that all studies are skewed to the preferences of the ones paying for the study.
But the point of the study is that the largest number of movies are skewed not to the tastes of the largest number of movie goers, but to the lesser.
Hollywood is not going to go out of its way to lose money just so they can turn us all into evil secular humanists.
No one is suggesting that Hollywood stop making any type of movie. They are just trying to show them that there is good money to be made making movies with strong Christian world-views and there is a demand for more.
'Enchanted' put a smile on my face. It was entertainment and fun.
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