By Dr. Ted Baehr and Tom Snyder
Moviegoers in the United States and Canada prefer family friendly, conservative movies with Christian, biblical values. So says a new financial study of Hollywood’s major releases by the Christian Film & Television Commission®.
“Our comprehensive study also shows that Americans and Canadians reject Hollywood movies with liberal and leftist values, atheist content, and explicit sex and nudity,” said Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and chairman of the Commission and Good News Communications, a non-profit advocacy group founded by Dr. Baehr in 1978.
For example, the Commission’s comprehensive study of the movies released in 2009 by the major studios in Hollywood shows that conservative, morally uplifting, patriotic movies and movies with strong Pro-American, pro-capitalist, and anti-socialist content, such as THE BLIND SIDE, UP, SHERLOCK HOLMES, MONSTERS VS. ALIENS, ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE SQUEAKQUEL, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, NOT EASILY BROKEN, and Director Tyler Perry’s I CAN DO BAD ALL BY MYSELF, averaged nearly $89.72 million per movie at the box office in the U.S. and Canada as of Feb. 17, 2010, but movies with strong liberal, leftist, atheist, anti-capitalist, radical feminist, pro-socialist, or pro-homosexual content and values, such as Michael Moore’s CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY, CREATION (a pro-atheist movie promoting Charles Darwin’s discredited theories on evolution), LAND OF THE LOST, BRÜNO, WATHCMEN, and THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE, averaged only $36.94 million, even if one included the anti-human blockbuster James Cameron’s AVATAR.
Also, the most Christian friendly and family friendly movies released in 2009 with no depicted sex, nudity, graphic violence, extreme drunkenness, or drug abuse averaged more than $65.13 million per movie as of April 5, 2010 while the least Christian friendly and least family friendly movies, which included such movies as the Twilight Saga movie NEW MOON and THE HANGOVER as well as AVATAR, WATCHMEN and BRÜNO, averaged only $30.77 million.
In fact, movies with very strong Christian worldviews like THE BLIND SIDE, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, UP, NOT EASILY BROKEN, I CAN DO BAD ALL BY MYSELF, and THE CROSS averaged more than $80.03 million at the box office as of April 5, 2010, but movies with very strong Non-Christian or Anti-Christian worldviews like AVATAR, Michael Moore’s latest movie, CREATION, and LAND OF THE LOST averaged less than $32.30 million.
Movies with very strong atheist worldviews like CREATION and LAND OF THE LOST did even worse than the average Non-Christian movie, earning only $11 million per movie in the U.S. and Canada.
Furthermore, movies with no foul language, no sex, and no explicit nudity averaged significantly more money than movies with some foul language, sex and nudity or extreme amounts of foul language, sex and explicit nudity.
Dr. Baehr noted that, according to a Harris Interactive Poll in 2009, 82% of Americans believe in God, 76% believe in miracles, 73% believe Jesus is God and/or the Son of God, and 70% believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“An October poll by Gallup showed that 40% of Americans consider themselves conservative or very conservative, but only 21% say they are liberal or very liberal,” Dr. Baehr added.
Dr. Baehr was asked if people overseas also prefer family friend, conservative movies with Christian, biblical values?
“Ninety percent of the Top 10 Movies Overseas in 2009 had strong Christian, biblical, moral, patriotic, Pro-American, pro-capitalist, and/or anti-socialist content,” he replied. “Only 30% had more than 25 obscenities or profanities, only 20% had a very strong Non-Christian worldview, and only 10% had any strong sexual content, explicit nudity or contained leftist ideology. And, none of them were rated R.”
Dr. Baehr noted that about 75% of the world’s 6.8 billion people, identify with one of the five major religions – Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
“Despite the theological and spiritual differences among them, all of these major religions have many moral values in common,” he added.
“They may not always vote this way, but most people in this world respond to conservative, traditional family values, not radical, utopian, unworkable, and immoral anti-conservative, anti-family ideologies. They want Good to triumph over evil, Justice to prevail over injustice, and religious people to succeed.”
Finally, Dr. Baehr referred people to the Christian Film & Television Commission®’s recent study of the Top 20 Selling DVDs of 2009.
“Nearly all of them, 90%, had strong or very strong Christian, morally uplifting worldviews with biblical values or conservative, patriotic, pro-capitalist, or anti-socialist content,” he said.
Dr. Baehr is chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission® (CFTVC) ministry and publisher of its family guide to movies, Movieguide® (www.movieguide.org). Started in 1985 by Dr. Baehr, CFTVC and Movieguide® are an international non-profit ministry dedicated to “redeeming the values of the entertainment industry by influencing industry executives and by informing and equipping the public about the influence of the entertainment media.”
Both CFTVC and Movieguide® are now in their 25th year of service. Their parent organization, Good News Communications, Inc., has been operating since 1978.
For more information about CFTVC and Movieguide®, please visit www.movieguide.org.
To buy the advocacy group’s 2010 Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry, which contains hundreds of tables and figures on movie earnings and averages through the 2009 calendar year, including figures on foul, language, sex, nudity, alcohol use, and drug abuse and information about thousands of studies concerning religious and political beliefs around the world and the impact of the mass media, please call 1-888-248-6689.
Below is the breakdown of the particular categories analyzed in the new study by the Christian Film & Television Commission®, with the Average Box Office per movie in the U.S. and Canada.
Christian vs. Non-Christian Worldviews, 2009-2010 in U.S. and Canada
Box Office Sources: The Numbers and IMDB as of 01/04/10 Plus BoxOfficeMojo as of 04/05/10.
|
Very Strong Worldviews, 2009-2010 |
Count |
Sum of B.O. |
Avg. B.O.* |
|
CCC |
11 |
$880,342,909 |
$80.03 million |
|
Very strong Non-Christian or Anti- Christian worldviews |
73 |
$2,356,390,754 |
$32.30 million |
Most Family-Friendly vs. Least Family-Friendly Movies, 2009-2010 in U.S. and Canada
Box Office Sources: The Numbers and IMDB as of 01/04/10 Plus BoxOfficeMojo as of 04/05/10.
|
Content, 2009-2010 |
Count |
B.O. Sum |
Avg. B.O.* |
|
Most Family-Friendly Movies |
30 |
$1,954,017,273 |
$65.13 million |
|
Least Family-Friendly Movies |
109 |
$3,353,931,249 |
$30.77 million |
Conservative Movies versus Liberal/Leftist Movies, 2009-2010 in U.S. and Canada
Box Office Sources: The Numbers and IMDB as of 01/04/10 Plus BoxOfficeMojo as of 02/17/10.
|
Content |
Count |
B.O. Sum |
Avg. B.O.* |
|
All Conservative/Moral Categories |
59 |
$5,293,406,098 |
$89.72 million |
|
All Liberal/Leftist/Immoral Categories |
87 |
$3,213,754,493 |
$36.94 million |
* Numbers rounded off.
Note: Photo above is from THE BLIND SIDE.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
