Family-Oriented Movies Continue to Boost Ticket Sales
By Movieguide® Contributor
If a studio wants to make money in the box office, they should include more family and faith content.
The math is simple: A parent or grandparent would rather by four or five or six tickets to go see a movie with everyone in their family than buy one ticket to go see a super violent or sexual movie.
Even in the pandemic, the proof is in the pudding as inspiring and redemptive movies like SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME and SING 2 continue to dominate in the box office, beating out newer movies like THE 355.
THE 355 fell behind SING 2 on the domestic box office charts. SING 2 is the first animated movie to cross the $100 million mark since FROZEN 2 in 2019.
Per Variety:
That’s a notable achievement at a time when parents haven’t been taking their young kids to the movies, though box office analysts remain concerned about the sluggish return of family audiences. In 2019, animated films generated more money than any other genre, thanks to family-friendly hits like “The Lion King” ($543 million), “Toy Story 4” ($434 million) and “Frozen II” ($430 million).
“The industry needs the family audience back in force for a sustained recovery,” David A. Gross, head of the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research, told Variety.
This is exactly what Movieguide® has preached for decades.
Over the course of more than 40 years, our Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry has charted the increased success of family-oriented movies, proving that the more foul language or sexual content a movie contains, the less it performs at the box office.
Studios and theaters need movies like SING 2 that stress biblical themes of overcoming fear and grief through love, family, courage, kindness, and faith.
Families are not going to pay to see movies like THE 355 that contain 13 obscenities (including one “f” word), one GD profanity and one OMG profanity and excessive violence.
Furthermore, while SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME is not appropriate for children, teenagers and adults are flocking to the theaters to see one of the most redemptive storylines in recent movie history. Despite pandemic restrictions, the movie that premiered just last month has already broken into the Top 10 highest-grossing movies of all time.
Entertainment execs would do well to take note of these successes. Cut the violence, language and sexual content. Add in inspirational and uplifting content. That’s the formula to a winning box office.
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