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Let There Be Light!

Let There Be Light!

Publisher Ted Baehr Presents Highlights from MOVIEGUIDE®’s Annual

Report to Hollywood Showing Christian, Family Movies Do Best

MOVIEGUIDE® Founder and Publisher Dr. Ted Baehr presented highlights from MOVIEGUIDE®’s 2018 Report to the Entertainment Industry, a comprehensive economic analysis of the content and philosophical, moral, spiritual, and political perspectives in the major movies released theatrically in 2017, at the 26th Annual Faith & Values Awards Gala.

He reported that TV viewers and moviegoers prefer movies and television programs with biblical, morally uplifting, faith-based, patriotic, and conservative principles and values.

For example, 90% of the Top 10 Movies in the United States and overseas in 2017 contained strong or very strong Christian, redemptive, biblical, moral content, including such movies as DESPICABLE ME 3, JUSTICE LEAGUE, THOR:  RAGNORAK, WONDER WOMAN, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, SPIDER-MAN:  HOMECOMING, and THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS, among others.

Dr. Baehr noted:

For now, That Was The Year That Was that:

• BOSS BABY told audiences that Jesus was the boss,

• The great news of Christmas in THE STAR transformed the heroes who were, of course, animals, and the audience,

• Teamwork, fatherhood and truth transformed Batman in THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE,

• God’s grace helped Christian refugees and transformed ALL SAINTS Church.

• An atheist reporter was transformed by looking at the evidence in THE CASE FOR CHRIST,

• Freedom fighting soldiers and patriotic citizens were transformed in DUNKIRK

• WONDER WOMAN was transformed by the power of selfless love, and

• A flawed father was transformed to sacrifice himself for his daughter in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES, and,

• Moviegoers were transformed and inspired to support the good, the true and the beautiful at the box office.

Ted added:

To help the Entertainment Industry, every year we do this detailed economic Report to the Entertainment Industry analysis based on 150 criteria. We look at the aesthetics, ontology, epistemology, and semantics. It’s like plugging your car into a computer to see why you have a little knock. It’s like seeing how can you tune up your car better? With that, we find out that great movies are great stories well-told, which is a very precise and skilled process.

That is we do a CT scan, MRI, of how every movie performs from that point of view using a detailed 150 criteria. These are the criteria that I was using when I was head of an auxiliary department at GTU at U.C. Berkeley, and head of a department at City University of New York, to help you make entertainment that will sell year after year and transform the next generation.

  Of course, you can and do look at different audiences. My wife is Argentine, so you can look at the Spanish-speaking audience. You can look at the women’s audience. You can look at children. However, this report is the key to a really big audience.

Furthermore, family-friendly movies with absolutely no foul language, sex, explicit nudity, or substance abuse earned the most money, significantly more money than movies with such explicit content.

Each year, Movieguide® analyzes all of the major theatrical movies according to basic biblical principles, morality and theology from a Christian perspective.

In 2017, movies with very strong Christian, redemptive or moral content and values averaged $57.84 million at the domestic box office, but movies with very strong Non-Christian, false or immoral worldviews averaged only $10.49 million.

Movies with very strong secular humanist or atheist content or worldviews did even worse, averaging only $1.16 million per movie!

Also, Movieguide® identified 75 theatrical movies from 2017 that contained at least some strong or very strong Christian, redemptive content, an increase of 60% from 2012, when there were only 47 such movies. Those movies totaled a whopping $5.68 billion at the box office in 2017 in Canada and the United States alone.

The 80-page 2018 Report to the Entertainment Industry also notes that the Christ-centered, patriotic TV program BLUE BLOODS, a MOVIEGUIDE® Award nominee, gained about one million viewers during the last season while most other top-rated network programs were losing one or two million viewers!

“We’re here to celebrate you, movies and TV programs that transform us,” Dr. Baehr told the honorees and other members of the entertainment industry, including past nominees and winners.

“Moviegoers were transformed and inspired to support the Good, the True and the Beautiful at the box office,” he continued.

“We want to inspire you to continue to succeed and prosper,” he added.

Dr. Baehr pointed out that about 118 Americans go to church every week, about 36 percent, but only about 24 million Americans, or 7.3 percent, went to movie theaters every week in 2017.

“Great movies are great stories well told, have a positive worldview, and are spiritually uplifting,” he said.

“Walt Disney said, ‘Movies can and do have a tremendous influence in shaping young lives,’” Dr. Baehr said. “The most concerned about shaping young lives are the most educated people. About seven percent of the audience wants to copy the violence they see in movies.

“What you write, what you produce can transform the next generation. So, thank you for what you’ve done.”

Here are charts of some of the major findings in the Annual Report:

** Christian, Redemptive, Moral Worldviews Earn the Most Money

Domestic Box Office:

Very Strong 2017 Content Compared

Very Strong Content

B.O. Avg.

Very Strong Christian/Redemptive/Moral Content

$57.84 million

Very Strong Non-Christian Content

$10.49 million

Very Strong Secular Humanist or Atheist Content

$1.16 million

* The Non-Christian Worldviews analyzed included Pagan or Mixed worldviews (PaPaPa), Occult worldviews (OOO), Romantic worldviews (according to the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau) (RoRoRo), and Humanist/Atheist worldviews (HHH). Some of the Non-Christian worldviews also might have had some light or overt Christian, redemptive, biblical, or moral content or values.

** Five and Ten-Year Worldview Comparisons

Very Strong Worldviews Compared, 2013-2017*

Very Strong Worldviews

Avg. B.O.

Movies with very strong Christian worldviews

$63,233,728

Movies with very strong Non-Christian worldviews

$19,369,891

Very Strong Worldviews Compared, 2008-2017*

Very Strong Worldviews

Avg. B.O.

Movies with very strong Christian worldviews

$62,355,730

Movies with very strong Non-Christian worldviews

$18,645,520

* MOVIEGUIDE® only used the amount of money that the various worldviews earned in the calendar year they were released.

** Sex and Nudity Don’t Sell!

Domestic Box Office:

Content

Total 2017 B.O.

Implied/Light Sex

$4.88 billion

Depicted Sex

$1.15 billion

Extreme Sex

$0.22 billion

Content

Total 2017 B.O.

No Sexual Nudity

$8,294,024,023

Some Sexual Nudity

$1,420,284,218

Extreme Sexual Nudity

$383,960,582

** Political Content in 2017 Movies

Movies with Strong Conservative Values Do Best!

Content

Count

Total 2017 B.O.

2017 Avg. B.O.

All Conservative/Moral Categories

96

$6,122,331,191

$63,774,283

All Liberal/Leftist/Immoral Categories

86

$2,186,818,162

$25,428,118

Note:  The strong conservative content measured included movies with Pro-American, patriotic, capitalist, anti-communist, anti-socialist, anti-statist, and/or very strong moral values reflecting biblical ethics. The strong liberal/leftist content included movies with Anti-American, anti-patriotic, anti-capitalist, communist, socialist, statist, very strong radical feminist, atheist, and/or politically correct content reflecting left-wing identity politics and left-wing multiculturalism. Our political database includes a few movies containing both liberal and conservative content, which can, of course, cancel one another out. Also, not all the movies in the sample were thoroughly conservative, liberal or leftist (some of the political content may be strong or overt but brief).

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.