By Jeff Holder
Much to Hollywood’s surprise, THE BLIND SIDE did an end run around THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON, which had dominated the box office for two weeks. The faith-filled sports movie brought in $20.4 million in the third weekend of their box office run compared to NEW MOON’s $15.7 million.
“We predicted this success for THE BLIND SIDE,” says Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and publisher of MOVIEGUIDE®. “When you take a great story that has terrific faith content and combine it with excellent filmmaking, you have a hit on your hands.”
Today’s box office pundits always look to the opening weekend to be the “do or die” scenario for a movie. Conventional wisdom says that a slow opening weekend spells disaster. But, movies sometimes grow by word of mouth and achieve higher numbers than those who are out of the gate quickly.
THE BLIND SIDE found itself in the enviable position of being the number one movie in the country in its third week of release.
THE BLIND SIDE is not the first movie to do grow over time during this holiday movie season.
Last month DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL, an extremely redemptive, faith-filled movie starring Jim Carrey, opened “soft” to a lower-than-expected $30 million. Many critics and armchair Hollywood analysts said this meant a bomb.
Yet, Disney’s strategy of opening a Christmas movie the first weekend in November has paid off as word of mouth has continued to bring families to the story of Scrooge as Christmas Day approaches. To date, A CHRISTMAS CAROL has brought in over $115 million, and it’s still in theaters!
“The funny thing is,” Dr. Baehr says, “people in Hollywood will still say that THE BLIND SIDE is successful because it’s a sports movie or because it’s about an inner city youth or something and miss the point that it’s a story of sacrifice motivated by a strong Christian faith. That’s what’s making people tell their friends to go see it.”
Baehr presents the Report to the Entertainment Industry each February at MOVIEGUIDE®’s Annual Gala. Year after year the evidence is overwhelming that movies with strong Christian, redemptive elements and/or faith-filled characters excel at the box office.
According to the non-profit family guide to movies and entertainment’s 2009 Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry of 2008 movies, movies with very strong Christian, biblical and/or moral worldviews did five to 33 times better at the theatrical box office in America and Canada in 2008 than movies with very strong secular humanist, nihilistic, anti-Christian, and/or anti-biblical worldviews.
The movies with very strong Christian, biblical and/or moral worldviews included such movies as PRINCE CASPIAN, FIREPROOF, BOLT, INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3, BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA, HOUSE, TYLER PERRY’S THE FAMILY THAT PREYS, EXPELLED, DEFIANCE, THE TALE OF DESPERAUX, THE LONGSHOTS, RAMBO, VALKYRIE, GRAN TORINO, and FROZEN RIVER.
The movies with very strong secular humanist, nihilistic, anti-Christian, and/or anti-biblical worldviews included such movies as WANTED, STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE, CHICAGO 10, RELIGULOUS, SAW V, BRIDESHEAD REVISITED, HAMLET 2, HOUNDDOG and BLOODLINE.
According to MOVIEGUIDE®, if you separate the three movies with very strong anti-Christian and anti-biblical worldviews (HAMLET 2, HOUNDDOG and BLOODLINE), the movies with positive worldviews did 33 times better.
Worldviews in Conflict
Christian/Biblical/Moral Worldviews Beat Anti-Christian/Anti-Biblical/Humanist Worldviews
|
Dom. WV |
B.O. Avg. |
|
CCC + BBB |
$55,403,248 |
|
HHH + AbAbAb |
$11,178,009 |
|
AbAbAb |
$1,683,396 |
What about previous years?
Even there too, people prefer movies with very strong Christian, biblical and moral worldviews, as shown by the following 5 Year and 10 Year charts.
For these charts, Movieguide® added all the other movies with very strong non-Christian worldviews, including worldviews promoting other religions, not just ones that attacked religion in general, promoted secular humanism or overtly mocked God, Jesus Christ and/or the Bible.
Very Strong Worldviews Compared, 2004-2008
|
Very Strong Worldviews |
Avg. B.O. |
|
Movies with very strong Christian worldview |
$62,355,078 |
|
Movies with very strong moral/biblical worldview |
$59,731,841 |
|
Movies with very strong non-Christian worldviews |
$20,385,826 |
Very Strong Worldviews Compared, 1999-2008
|
Very Strong Worldviews |
Avg. B.O. |
|
Movies with very strong Christian worldview |
$57,502,298 |
|
Movies with very strong moral/biblical worldview |
$56,628,509 |
|
Movies with very strong non-Christian worldviews |
$19,335,587 |
“Hollywood should make more movies like BLIND SIDE, PRINCE CASPIAN, FIREPROOF, and THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST if they want to do well at the box office,” said Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and publisher of Movieguide®, who leads the non-profit group’s annual study.
Dr. Baehr will reveal the highlights of the 2010 Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry Wednesday evening at the 18th Annual Movieguide® Faith & Values Awards Gala in Beverly Hills on February 23, 2010. For more information, please call or email Kendra at MOVIEGUIDE(r) – 805-383-2000 or kendra@movieguide.org
You can read MOVIEGUIDE®’s review of THE BLIND SIDE here
You can watch exclusive behind the scenes interviews with cast here.
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.
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