by Ed Vitagliano
(AgapePress) – For decades parents and pro-family groups alike have been pleading with Hollywood to excise the unnecessary sex, gore and profanity from its movies if the entertainment industry wanted to make more money. Now a recently released study says all the shouting has not been simply hot air.
The report was presented by Dr. Ted Baehr at the 9th Annual Movieguide Awards, sponsored by the Christian Film & Television Commission. Besides chairing that organization, Baehr authored the book, The Media-Wise Family, and publishes Movieguide®, a family guide to movies and other entertainment products.
The Movieguide® study pointed out that last year, movies rated PG-13 and under did vastly more business at the box office than movies rated R or NC-17. (See chart below.) Even more to the point, the report demonstrated that movies with a Christian worldview had a better average box office ($42.9 million) than those with a strictly pagan ($23.6), occultic ($10.9), politically correct ($6.8) or humanistic worldview ($4.1).
Hollywood may be catching on. According to Movieguide® and A.C. Nielsen, 41% of movies in 2000 had Christian content — a 24% increase over 1999.
The content of the entertainment media is critical to the nation’s future, according to Baehr. The study said that, by the time children reach the age of 17, they have watched, listened to or participated in 40,000 hours worth of entertainment media products. In contrast, those same kids have spent 11,000 hours in school, 2,000 hours with their parents, and 800 in church.
Results of Study
According to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and Movieguide, films which were given an MPAA rating of G, PG and PG-13 fared better than movies with more explicit content. Following is the average box office last year in millions of dollars:
G: $31.1
PG: $46.7
PG-13: $37.7
R: $15.6
NC-17: Less than $1 million
(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)
