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8 March 2007: In a very
interesting and unexpected revelation,
a recent study that examined top box
office movies from 1998 through 2006
has found that films with a strong
Christian worldview tended to perform
better at the theatres than those that
included explicit sex and nudity
and/or extreme foul language.
The study, which is a dissection of a
larger 120-page report that spans nine
years, was written up by Dr Ted Baehr,
publisher of MovieGuide, a Christian
movie review publication that attempts
to alert parents of movie subject
matter.
The study shows that ‘Christian’
films, that is, films with a strong
Christian worldview, make anywhere
from two to seven times more in ticket
sales than those with explicit sex and
nudity.
The findings are far different than
the “sex sells” formula that has been
a cliché trademark of American
advertising, which uses it to
legitimise media’s use of mature
content, stresses Dr Ted Baehr.
“Hollywood pundits and advertisers on
Madison Avenue like to tell the press
that sex, nudity and obscenity sells
best,” states Dr Ted Baehr in the
report, “but nothing could be further
from the truth.”
According to the study, the highest
and lowest averages for films with a
strong Christian worldview were
between $106.3 million a movie and
$30.1 million a movie, respectively.
Those films that have strong
profanity, sex, and/or nudity had a
range of high-lows from $27.7 million
a movie to $6.3 million a movie,
respectively.
“Thus, the vast majority of moviegoers
prefer positive Christian movies with
morally uplifting content,” Dr Ted
Baehr concludes in the report.
Dr Baehr adds: “If Hollywood
executives and film-makers want to
make more money at the box office,
they should make more movies that
reflect a very strong Christian
worldview with very strong moral
values.”
The study also lists a detailed
account for the box office average for
each of the nine examined years for
those movies with strong Christian
worldview values and those with
explicit sex, nudity, and foul
language.
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