Movie fans flock to patriotic, moral shows

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Movie fans flock to patriotic, moral shows 
'If you're making 'Redacted,' you're cruising for a box office failure'

Americans flock to movies with patriotic, moral content, according to a study that looked at thousands of movies released by Hollywood in recent years, but they avoid those with socialist and anti-capitalist themes in droves.

"Movies with very strong Judeo-Christian values, capitalist ideals, patriotism and pro-American attitudes do much better at the box office than movies promoting socialism, Marxism, left-wing political correctness and atheism," said Ted Baehr, publisher of MOVIDEGUIDE©: A Family Guide to Movies and Entertainment, and chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission ministry in Hollywood.

The study shows that there were 28 movies with very strong Christian morality released in 2007, and they averaged $60.3 million at the box office, the four movies with strong pro-capitalist content averaged $62.7 million, and the 30 with patriotic and pro-American elements averaged more than $73 million at the box office.

However, the five movies with strong anti-capitalist content averaged $5.5 million, those with socialist content averaged $8.2 million, and those with communist content averaged $10.2 million, the study showed.

At the bottom of the heap was a single movie with very strong feminism that returned a box office take of $3,000, while movies with very strong homosexuality returned $18.7 million, those with very strong atheism returned $25.3 million, those with politically correct content returned $20.6 million and those with anti-American themes returned $34.6 million, the study said.

Baehr, who will release the full 2008 Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry at the 16th annual Faith & Values Awards Gala on Feb. 12 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, said the results are clear.

"If they make movies that have affirmative, pro-moral, patriotic content, no matter what the ratings, it will do better at the box office," he said. "It says if you make the opposite, that which undermines faith and patriotism, it'll do poorly at the box office."

The full 100-plus page report will detail figures on Judeo-Christian content, pagan worldview, occult content, environmentalist content, anti-Christian content, MPAA ratings and box office averages on the amount of foul language, sex, nudity, violence and substance abuse portrayed, he said.

He said the results also show that there are two reasons Hollywood releases movies. The first is to entertain and make a profit, while the second is to "show you're just as Hollywood PC as the next producer."

"If you're making a movie like 'Redacted,' you're cruising for a box office failure," he said.

He said such projects will only do filmmakers good "in the small inner circle of the elite system that is contrary to the values of faith and tolerance and grace."

The results show the "average movie-goer" has more common sense than the average person who considers himself among those "elite," he said. He also noted that those are only a portion of the Hollywood industry, because "there are a lot of good people, producers, writers and directors" in Hollywood.

For 2007, the report noted, movies including "Ratatouille," "Live Free or Die Hard," "National Treasure," "Alvin and the Chipmunks," "Amazing Grace," "The Astronaut Farmer," "Enchanted," The Ten Commandments," "Resurrecting the Champ" and others are representative of the industry's "very strong Judeo-Christian values, strong pro-capitalist content and pro-American or patriotic attitudes."

They all earned "significantly more money," than offerings including "Sicko," "Redacted," "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry," "The Golden Compass," "The Host," "Hollywood Dreams," "Fay Grim" and others.

"In fact, 72 percent of the Top 25 at the Box Office in North America, and 90 percent of the Top 10, contained strong or very strong traditional, conservative Judeo-Christian values with positive pro-American, capitalist and patriotic content," the report said.

"In contrast, only 16 percent of the Top 25 had any anti-American or unpatriotic content or any strong or very strong atheist content and only 12 percent had any strong or very strong homosexual content or any left-wing, politically correct content."

MOVIDEGUIDE©, which is "dedicated to redeeming the values of the entertainment industry by influencing industry executives and informing the public," has analyzed 1,725 movies released between 2002 and 2007 for its study.

The results are virtually repeated year-to-year, with the movies with very strong Judeo-Christian morality, strong pro-capitalist content and patriotic/pro-American content bringing in the highest box office.

For 2006, those categories were at $45.6 million, $74.2 million and $40.8 million, respectively. "Very strong feminism" brought in $0.4 million and "very strong homosexuality" brought in $3.5 million.

In 2005, those three categories brought in $57.6 million, $74.2 million and $40.0 million, respectively. That year movies with very strong feminism brought in $1.1 million and homosexuality brought in $5.1 million.

In 2004, the three categories brought in $107.7 million, $77.6 million and $47.3 million, while movies with very strong homosexuality themes brought in $1.2 million.

The results for 2002 and 2003 were similar.

"Our focus is on religion, morality, and philosophy, not politics or economics or patriotism, so the statistical comparisons reported herein are striking. They clearly prove our point that, if a filmmaker or studio wants to be successful at theaters in North America, he or she should film a story with pro-capitalist, patriotic, and pro-American content reflecting very strong traditional moral values reflecting a biblical worldview. Radical, left-wing politics, atheist humanism, and strong perverse sexual content offend and annoy the average moviegoer," the report said.