An annual study of the sexual content in Hollywood movies shows that movies with explicit sex and nudity don't sell.
Each year, the Christian Film & Television Commission and its monthly publication, MOVIEGUIDE®, analyzes the content of all the major movies released by Hollywood.
Only five of the Top 10 Movies at the Domestic Box Office in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004, less than 15 percent, had excessive or very graphic sex in them, according to MOVIEGUIDE®'s ratings, but 25, or 63 percent, had either a moral worldview or a Christian worldview.
Also, the bigger the amount and the stronger the sex and nudity are in a movie, the worse it does at the box office.
In 2004, for example, 91 movies with no sex averaged $39.9 million, 106 movies with implied sex scenes averaged $30.8 million, movies with some depicted sex averaged $25.9 million, and movies with excessive, extensive, or graphic sex averaged less than $6.3 million. In 2003, 78 movies with no sex averaged $37.6 million; 95 movies with implied sex averaged $32.1 million; 71 movies with depicted sex averaged $25 million; and, 35 movies with extensive, excessive, or graphic sex averaged only $17.1 million. In 2002, 82 movies with no sex averaged $44.3 million; 104 movies with implied sex averaged $23.2 million; 82 movies with depicted sex averaged $20 million; and 31 movies with extensively depicted, excessive, or graphic sex averaged only $17.7 million.
In 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004, movies with no nudity averaged $26.6 million, $40.7 million, $35.9 million, $34.6 million, and $38 million, respectively, but movies with full male and/or female nudity averaged $14.5 million, $7.6 million, $9.1 million, $11.8 million, and $6.5 million, respectively. Movies with some sexual nudity averaged less than $20 million in 2004.
“Clearly, sex does not sell as well as the mass media wants us to believe,” said Dr. Ted Baehr, chairman of Christian Film & Television Commission and publisher of MOVIEGUIDE®.
This is even true at the box office overseas, Dr. Baehr added.
For example, none of the Top 20 Movies Overseas, including the R-rated The Passion of The Christ, the R-rated Troy, and the PG-rated Shrek 2, had any sexual nudity in them, and only two had any depicted or excessively graphic sex scenes in them.
“The sexual content in movies is irrespective of the R rating,” Dr. Baehr said, “because R-rated movies like The Passion of The Christ and Troy have either no sex scenes or only implied sex scenes and light sexual references.”
Dr. Baehr released the full 2005 MOVIEGUIDE® Report to Hollywood on February 24, 2005 at the 13th Annual Faith & Values Award s Gala in Beverly Hills. For more details on this or any other part of MOVIEGUIDE®'s Annual Report, please call 1-800-577-6684.
This article courtesy of the Christian Film & Television Commission.
