Do ‘Wholesome Movies’ Bust More Blocks?
Personally, I don’t always agree with MovieGuide. But this release from the Christian movie-reviewing and advocacy organization has a ring of truth. The page itself is undated, but it was published Feb. 20:
The Good, the True and the Beautiful: Box Office Study Shows Movies with Christian, Redemptive Worldviews and Values Earn the Most
Moviegoers prefer movies with Christian, redemptive values, reveals an annual study of box office figures among the major movies produced by Hollywood.
According to the 2013 Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry by the Christian Film & Television Commission®, an advocacy group in Hollywood, movies with very strong Christian, redemptive worldviews reflecting traditional moral values earned four times as much money on average as movies with very strong Non-Christian, Anti-Christian, or mixed worldviews, $90.78 million versus $20.22 million.
Movies with very strong humanist or atheist worldviews fared even worse, making only $2.43 million per movie.
Also, the stronger the Christian/Redemptive worldview, the more money the movie made.
The MovieGuide page’s showcase of an action/character diorama from The Avengers (2012) is apt.
However, how do your own film enjoyments confirm, or challenge, this supposition?
That’s cherry-picking, and considering the gross of the Avengers, skews the receipts quite a bit. I’m curious how his list of movies offers any particular Christian theme, or even a general redemptive one.
I agree with the premise, but we need to be honest about criticism and not just arbitrarily declare one of the biggest films of 2012 to be what we like and then use it to make a point.
I don’t always agree with Movieguide’s reviews, but their research is excellent. I heard Ted Baehr speak on this long-standing argument (about wholesome films and profit margins) a few years back. He now has almost 30 years experience with not only doing this research, but using it effectively in Hollywood to impact producers choices. He has a point. Family friendly films have significantly higher receipts. Just because a movie is family friendly, doesn’t mean I’ll like it. In recent years, a lot of films have been made with strong redemptive themes but no mention of God, as this seems to be a way to drive up sales (bringing in those Bible belt dollars) without paying any homage to the Redeemer himself…
I don’t always agree with MovieGuide either, but when I do … I still think their reviewers have many flaws in their worldview approach.
Sometimes MovieGuide practices the wrong sort of “fundamentalism,” i.e. evangelical-Talmudic “cultural fundamentalism” rather than Biblical fundamentalism. This is evident in their “magic! magic! beware” reviews of Harry Potter films. (Superheroe films get a free pass on that ’cause that’s labeled Science.)
Other times MovieGuide tries to do the postmodern “look for the redemptive types” thing and comically fails. Perhaps the best example of this is MG’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End review, which flagrantly ignored the film’s relativism!
In this case, I think there’s some truth to the “redemptive films make more money” claim, but truth tempered with plain facts about culture.