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TechnoratiA recent study that looked at top box office movies from 1998 through 2006 has found that films with a strong Christian worldview tend to perform better at the theatres than those that include 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. It shows that “Christian” films – 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 legitimize media’s use of mature content.
“Hollywood pundits and advertisers on Madison Avenue like to tell the press that sex, nudity and obscenity sells best,” expressed 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 per movie and $30.1 million per movie, respectively. Those films that have strong profanity, sex, and/or nudity had a range of high-lows from $27.7 million per movie to $6.3 million per movie, respectively.
“Thus, the vast majority of moviegoers, which includes the 142 million Americans who go to church every week, prefer positive Christian movies with morally uplifting content,” said Baehr in the write-up.
He added, “If Hollywood executives and filmmakers 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.
