Moviegoers Favour Conservative Movies with Moral Values, Five-Year Study Shows

CAMARILLO, CA, April 13, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) –  A recent five-year study of the top movies released by Hollywood reveals that moviegoers prefer conservative movies with positive moral values rather than movies that push a left-wing agenda.  “Movies that support capitalist ideals, traditional moral values, and patriotism do much better at the box office than movies promoting socialism, communism, radical feminism, left-wing political correctness, and atheism,” said Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of MOVIEGUIDE®: A Family Guide to Movies and Entertainment and chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission, a Christian advocacy group in Hollywood that authored the study.  For example, movies in 2003 with very strong moral content, such as Finding Nemo and Return of the King, averaged $92.5 million, while movies with very strong atheist content averaged only $5.3 million and movies with very strong political correctness from a leftist perspective averaged only $20.1 million.  “These differences also show up in our analysis of movies released from 1999 through 2002,” Dr. Baehr said.  “Our emphasis is on religious and spiritual values, not political and economic concerns,” he noted, “so these findings are particularly striking.”  Every year, MOVIEGUIDE® and the Christian Film & Television CommissionT analyze the content of the top 275 to 300 movies released by Hollywood and the major independent film studios.  Comparisons revealed that movies with very strong homosexual content only made $1.8 million, $9.2 million, $19.9 million, $3.8 million, and $8.1 million per movie in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003, respectively, while movies with very strong radical feminist content made only $0.6 million, $17.8 million, $1.2 million, $2.7 million, and $20.3 million, respectively.  During those same years, movies with very strong moral content averaged $19.3, $33.3, $48.2, $71, and $92.5 million per movie, respectively.  See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage, “Multitude of Services Growing to Offer Cleaned-Up Hollywood Films on DVD,” at: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/feb/03020510.html