The 2014 Annual Movieguide Report, published by Dr. Ted Baehr’s movieguide.org, was just released, and it reveals some very interesting statistics about the movies being released by Hollywood. In a nutshell, family friendly, patriotic and even religious films are more successful at the box office than films that feature substantial amounts of sex and violence.

Here is part of that report as quoted on www.fox17.com. “Movies that had no foul language, like “Frozen,” earned the most (an average of $65.81 million), while films with more than 25 incidences of profanity, like “Wolf of Wall Street,” averaged just $30.43 million and did not make the top 25.
Similarly, films without any sexual content –“Gravity,” for example – averaged $51.15 million in box office earnings, compared to films with significant nudity or sexual content, like “We’re the Millers.” Films with blatant sex and nudity averaged less than $24 million in the U.S.
“Contrary to popular opinion, sex does not really sell,” the study found. “Moviegoers clearly prefer the types of positive, family friendly movies with biblical and morally uplifting content.” Read the full report here.

When Hollywood producers and directors and actors are asked about their part in the increasing number of R rated movies being put out that are loaded with gratuitous sex and violence, their comments usually go something like this, “…sex sells and so does violence. We’re just making the kinds of movies that people want.” This report that is spotlighted above just goes to show, there are far too many powerful people in the movie industry who aren’t interested in the desires of the majority of the movie-going audience. Instead they are driven by their own lusts, and the praise of a smaller group of like-minded movie-goers. The Movieguide report comes out every year and the findings are always very similar. I hope that someday Hollywood will pay attention and produce more family friendly movies. Numbers like these definitely help, but the most powerful weapon we have at our disposal is our wallets. If we stop going to R rated movies filled with sex and violence, than Hollywood will have no other choice but to stop making them.