Hollywood makes 'R' movies, while 'G' movies makes money

Here's Proof. Movies Are Made for Cultural Propaganda, Not Capitalist Profit

A new comprehensive study of the movie industry released during the buildup to the 1999 Academy Awards confirms what pro-family groups have contended for years: G-rated films are more profitable than R-rated ones. Yet, in defiance of its own economic interests, Hollywood continues to produce far more R-rated movies than G-rated movie-and even promises a bumper crop of exceptionally graphic teen-oriented movies this year.

Paul Kagan Associates performed the study of the film industry at the request of the pro-family Dove Foundation of Grand Rapids, Mich. "While the movie industry produced 17.4 times more R-rated films than Grated films from 1988 to 1997," the study concluded, "the data shows that G-rated films produced 8.35 times more profits per film than R-rated movies." The study included 2,380 movies-all theatrical releases rated by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) that appeared on 800 or more screens in the United States during the decade under examination. The 800-screen minimum meant that art and foreign-language films were excluded. When calculating revenues and profits, the study included income from TV broadcasts, home-video rentals and video sales in addition to theater receipts.

Only 3% of Movies Rated 'G'

Buena Vista (a subdivision of Walt Disney) produced by far the largest number of G-rated films with 31.5% of the total. Warner Brothers, with 17.3% of the total, came in second. Columbia/TriStar produced the most R-rated movies, with other major studios lining up closely behind.

Between 1988 and 1997, 55% of the films produced were rated R (a total of 1,304 movies), while only 3% were rated G (a total of 75 pictures). But G films raked in an average of $94 million in profit per film, while R films brought in only an average of $11 million a film. This disparity in profits derives not only from the superior sales revenue of G films but also from the fact that G films generally had lower production costs. In fact, the study found that the more familyfriendly the rating of a movie, the greater both the average revenue and the average profit. G films generated the most revenues and the most profit, while PG films came in second, then PG-13 films, then R films, and last NC-17 films.

"If corporate Hollywood's objective is to make money for its stockholders," said the CEO of Dove, Dick Rolfe, "it should have no problem convincing its creative partners to redirect their efforts from R to G and PG films, and give the public more of what it wants, for profits' sake."

The Dove study confirms the conclusions presented in film critic Michael Medved's book Hollywood Vs. America (HarperPerennial, 1992). "An analysis of all 1,010 domestic releases logged into the comprehensive data base at Robert Cain Consulting Associates between 1983 and 1989 demonstrates a dramatic and unmistakable public preference for family-oriented material," Medved wrote. "During this period, all 'G' films achieved a median box office gross of $17.3 million, while 'PG' titles earned a median figure of $13.0 million. For 'PG-13' releases, the numbers dipped sharply to $9.3 million, while 'R' pictures returned an even more pathetic median gross of $8.3 million."

"In presenting the bleak and bloody visions that trouble so many of our fellow citizens," Medved concluded, "the popular .culture isn't responding to some primitive blood lust of the American people; it is, rather, following its own warped conceptions of artistic integrity, driven by some dark compulsion beyond simple greed."

Tom Sherak, chairman of 20th Century Fox's domestic film group, told the Hollywood Reporter, "We are in a creative business, based on content. The creative element has to be allowed to make the movie they want to make. The one thing you don't want to do is hurt the integrity of the movie."

Child Killed as Joke

Calls to major movie studios from HUMAN EVENTS seeking comment on the Dove study were unanimously ignored.

Citing the success of teen-oriented TV shows such as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Dawson's Creek," and recent teen-oriented flicks such as Scream, studios have produced a large number of teen-oriented movies for release over the next few months that demonstrate a continuing effort by Hollywood to define down what is acceptable in film. Many feature teen TV idols who charge less for a film than big-name movie stars. Some examples:

Cruel Intentions: This just-released film starring Buffy heroine Sarah Michelle Gellar, is a remake of Dangerous Liaisons set among wealthy Manhattan high schoolers. Gellar offers to sleep with her stepbrother if he will seduce an innocent girl who has promised to remain a virgin until she marries. Gellar "fuels her raw sex talk by snorting cocaine from a silver crucifix," reports Newsweek (March 1). Cruel Intentions director Roger Kumble makes no bones about his intended audience: children. "I tried not to talk down to kids but above them," he told Entertainment Weekly. His characters are "adults in kids' bodies."