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Hollywood Enlightenment
The San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 9/31/06 | Ted Baehr

Posted on 08/01/2006 6:52:59 AM PDT by ND-Mystery

It is no secret that most Americans believe Hollywood is out of touch with mainstream America. Some of the films they have produced over the years with their explicit lewd and violent scenes would make anyone's grandmother blush.

Yet, for all the hype of these their prize films, box-office receipts have declined a consistent 7 percent over the last three years. Hollywood executives have seemed confounded to understand why Americans are no longer turning out for movies in the same force as they used to. Until last week, when Walt Disney Company's new president of production, Oren Aviv, announced, in a major company-restructuring plan, that Disney plans to cut the production of R-rated movies and change its focus toward more family-oriented films.

Why? Year after year, as our research indicates, films containing morally uplifting, redemptive and even Christian content, earn at least three to seven times more than movies with explicit, potentially offensive elements.

Christians are influencing Hollywood in other ways than at the box office. Recently, the Motion Picture Association of America announced that a movie entitled, "Facing the Giants," will receive a PG rating because of the movies evangelistic Christian elements.

The result was a resounding success. The chairman of the MPAA's ratings board, John Graves, announced the association would no longer consider statements of faith or religious content as "thematic element" that could trigger a rating of PG or higher. These three developments illustrate the significant impact Christians have made in Hollywood.

Disney's move illustrates what other studios are also beginning to understand -- movies containing explicit material do not sell nearly as well as family-friendly films. Moreover, because the bottom line is the main concern to Hollywood executives and their financiers on Wall Street and overseas, they simply cannot afford it.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: boxoffice; christians; disney; facingthegiants; hollywood; mpaa
Disney is finally seeing the light.
1 posted on 08/01/2006 6:53:00 AM PDT by ND-Mystery
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To: ND-Mystery

I don't go to movies much anymore because I don't like the sticky floors, the crowds, and the smell... and I'm talking the nice new suburban metroplexes.


2 posted on 08/01/2006 6:56:52 AM PDT by Mercat (Hesbos kill children)
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To: ND-Mystery
There are four main things that keep me from the movie theater.

1) A liberal or anti-America storyline.

2) A liberal or anti- America cast.

3) Sitting with rude people I don't know.

4) My 42" plasma HDTV.

3 posted on 08/01/2006 7:07:38 AM PDT by Niteranger68 (I gigged your peace frog.)
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To: Mercat
Same here. I used to see at least four movies a week (granted, this was back when I was in my mid-twenties and had few responsibilities).

Now, there's rarely something I even want to see. The last film I actually went to see in the theater was King Kong because I wanted to see it on a big screen.

If it isn't some crap-spewing left wing movie actor keeping me away, it's the obnoxious suburban white kids who run around in front of the theater pretending to be thug rap gangstas, yakking loudly into their cell phones and calling each other "Yo N*gga".

Civil discourse has dissolved so rapidly in the last ten years, I'd just rather stay in at the Repo-Girl compound and watch DVDs.

4 posted on 08/01/2006 7:29:49 AM PDT by RepoGirl ("Bobby, if you weren't my son... I'd hug you...")
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To: ND-Mystery
re: "Facing the Giants," will receive a PG rating because of the movies evangelistic Christian elements)))

Gee, sex, violence and Christian "code language" might get your movie rated for adults.

5 posted on 08/01/2006 7:32:19 AM PDT by Mamzelle (in vino, veritas)
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To: ND-Mystery

Hollywood is finally discovering one of Life's Truisms--Money Talks and Bulls**t Walks.


6 posted on 08/01/2006 7:36:02 AM PDT by randog (What the...?!)
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To: ND-Mystery

Are you saying that there ARE Christians in Hollywood? Such news would surprise me.


7 posted on 08/01/2006 7:54:27 AM PDT by kjo
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To: ND-Mystery

It doesn't have to be religious to be morally uplifting and redemptive. People want to feel good at the movies and feel good about going with their families to the movies.

All you have to do is take a look at hits out of Bollywood to see what stimulates the masses. Singing, dancing, love, romance, and family values in the end.

Bollywood will start taking a chunk out of the world market in 10 to 15 years if Hollywood doesnt quickly change its tune.


8 posted on 08/01/2006 7:56:38 AM PDT by Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit (War is Peace__Freedom is Slavery__Ignorance is Strength)
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To: Mercat

Many years ago, after my shoes stuck to the theater floor, I said to Hell with the movie house. Now, I rarely bother with Hollywood fare, but do try to see every film in which Robert Duval (the greatest American actor, and a national treasure) makes an appearance.


9 posted on 08/01/2006 8:12:38 AM PDT by gaspar
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To: gaspar

I haven't been to a 'mainline' theater in many years. The last picture I saw was "Saving Private Ryan". Before that, I think it was "Ghandi".

I did, however, recently see "Lost Horizon", with Ronald Colman, at the local 'classics only' theater. Overall a nice experience...tickets $7, popcorn and soda $2, clean theater, mature (quiet) audience, a Bugs Bunny cartoon, and a guy playing the Wurlitzer!


10 posted on 08/01/2006 8:34:53 AM PDT by shorty_harris
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Comment #11 Removed by Moderator

Comment #12 Removed by Moderator

To: gaspar

Robert Duval was awesome in Days of Thunder.


13 posted on 08/01/2006 9:16:01 AM PDT by Holicheese (Stanley Cup's new home IS North Carolina!)
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To: ND-Mystery

Not only all that was said above. It is the expensive food, someone standing there making sure you do not bring in food (and it isn't for anti-terror reason either). At home I can get up and eat what ever I want, at retail price not 3x the retail price. When I was a kid, we use to bring our own food there.


14 posted on 08/01/2006 9:27:34 AM PDT by StuLongIsland
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To: RacerF150
I think the main reasons are:

$8 tickets!

$10 for popcorn and a drink!

CGI driving the story instead of good writing

15 mins of Commericals before you get to the movie!

15 posted on 08/01/2006 11:13:37 AM PDT by Bommer
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To: Bommer

I think I'll extend my list of reasons to 8.


16 posted on 08/01/2006 11:19:40 AM PDT by Niteranger68 (I gigged your peace frog.)
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To: DaveLoneRanger

Secondhand Lions was a marvel. It reminded me of a time long ago when I met in Oregon an aging gentleman who wore a vest that was crisscrossed by a rope of gold nuggets tied to a pocketwatch. He claimed to have been in the Klondike in 01, and had later joined the Foreign Legion and served for six years during World War I. He was hardly believable but told the most romantic tales imaginable. Before he left to go back east he walked into the local tavern in full dress Foreign Legion uniform. I wasn't there, but they say there wasn't a dry eye in that site loaded with hardbitten loggers. It saddens me to think that not only is he now gone, so are the loggers who made Oregon, Oregon.


17 posted on 08/01/2006 12:56:26 PM PDT by gaspar
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To: Mercat

I don't go to movies much any more. They just aren't any fun. Maybe they will go the way of the newspapers.


18 posted on 08/01/2006 4:21:02 PM PDT by freekitty
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To: ND-Mystery
Disney is finally seeing the light.

you mean disney is finally seeing the $$$$.

19 posted on 08/01/2006 5:06:35 PM PDT by wildwood
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Comment #20 Removed by Moderator

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