The Numbers Don’t Lie: How Movieguide® Helped Transform Hollywood

Published: July 5, 2026

Hollywood, faith — Photo by Aman on Unsplash

By Movieguide® Staff

The transformation of Hollywood over the past four decades is measurable — and Movieguide® has the receipts. Since its founding in 1985, the faith-based review ministry has tracked a shift in the entertainment industry so dramatic it reads less like a trend and more like answered prayer.

“The movies that bring in the most people are pictures that promote inspirational elements such as kindness, self-sacrifice, faith, forgiveness, redemption, honoring parents, courage, teamwork and honesty,” Dr. Ted Baehr, Founder and Publisher of Movieguide®, has long argued. Hollywood, it turns out, was finally listening.

When Dr. Baehr launched Movieguide® in 1985, major Hollywood studios released almost nothing with positive Christian content — fewer than 1% of their titles, often just one or two movies a year. By the time Movieguide® launched its Annual Faith & Values Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry in 1992 and 1993, that number had climbed to 27 movies, roughly 10.38% of the theatrical market.

The growth since then has been staggering. In 2019, at least 169 major movies — 63.77% of all theatrical releases — contained some positive Christian, redemptive content, a numerical increase of 526% in about 27 years. By 2024, that figure climbed further to 69.19%. Family-friendly movies tell a similar story: in 1985, less than 6% of major releases targeted families; today, nearly 40% of top theatrical releases do.

The box office figures are just as compelling. Movies with strong Christian and redemptive content generated less than $0.209 billion at the domestic box office in 1966. By 2019, that figure had surpassed $5.398 billion. Among the Top 25 domestic earners in 2023, movies with very strong Christian, redemptive worldviews averaged $178 million — roughly 100% more than films with strongly secular or humanist worldviews.

“We show them how to make more money,” Dr. Baehr has explained, armed with decades of economic analysis proving that faith-friendly movies outperform their gratuitous counterparts. It is a case he has made to studio heads for more than 40 years, and the receipts keep coming.

The last five years have produced some of the most compelling evidence yet. THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE, recognized by Movieguide® for its redemptive themes of loyalty, family and self-sacrifice, earned $1.361 billion worldwide in 2023. That same year, SOUND OF FREEDOM — a faith-driven independent movie about the battle against child trafficking, starring Jim Caviezel — earned $250.57 million globally against a budget of just $14.5 million. Angel Studios’ scrappy bet on moral conviction turned into a cultural moment that left mainstream Hollywood slack-jawed.

Then came INSIDE OUT 2 in 2024. Pixar’s sequel, praised by Movieguide® for its emotionally honest exploration of anxiety, identity and the value of every part of who God made us to be, earned $1.462 billion worldwide — making it the highest-grossing animated movie in history at the time of its release. The film’s central message, that even the uncomfortable parts of ourselves have a place and a purpose, connected with audiences everywhere.

These three titles are not outliers. TOP GUN: MAVERICK earned $1.49 billion globally in 2022 on the back of themes like duty, sacrifice and redemption. PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH pulled in $484 million that same year, anchored by a wholehearted embrace of community and second chances. Both received recognition from Movieguide®.

Taken together, the data paints a picture Dr. Baehr has been sketching since before most of today’s filmmakers were in film school. People do not, in the end, want more darkness at the movies. They want what good stories have always offered — the possibility of something better. Redemption. Grace. The chance to try again.

Movieguide® has been saying exactly that for 40 years. Hollywood might finally be getting the picture.

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