More Than a Hint, Hollywood!

God's Not Dead promo

By Gina Burgess –

“Ignoring the business side in the movie making business.” Kevin Sorbo  Great interview with Kevin Sorbo who is a Christian and has been for his whole life. How fabulous that a Christian actor has the strength of character to admit it publicly, and to live his convictions in his acting. He’s the star of God is not Dead that cost $2 million to make and has grossed more than $50 million (if I remember the figures correctly.) Sorbo said that Hollywood is ignoring the fact that family movies make more money.

But, hey – this is not new news. I said this same thing back in 2007, and again in 2009. It’s worth saying again today. Why does Hollywood insist on spending billions of dollars on trashy movies? It is because they live in a trashy kind of environment and they, the producers and directors, think it is real life. But it is not. Another problem is they think they know what America is hungry for when they, in fact, have their head in the sand.

fall scents for your home

Here are some facts and figures from my column in 2007…

Not one R-rated movie has made a top ten gross since 1995.

According to Numbers.com, a movie statistics website, the movies taking top dollar gross from 1995 to 2007 are PG-13 movies with a whopping $48.55 billion (yes, that is with a B) made from 1,247 movies filmed since 1995. R-rated films come next with a cumulative $34.1 billion made on 2,321 movies (that’s and average of $14.7 million for each movie). Next in line are PG movies with 638 films grossing $19.9 billion and finally 207 G-rated films grossing $6.35 billion or average of $30.7 million each. G-rated films grossed more than twice per film what an R-rated film grossed. Does that make sense to you?

Doing a little math, the R-rated movies grossed 30% less than the others, yet more of them were filmed. Not one of them made it into the top ten grossing slots. From 1995 to 2007, eight PG-13 films, four PG films and one G (Finding Nemo) made the number 1 slot for gross dollars culled.

Some would say, oh that’s because Mom and Dad take the kiddies to the movies and that’s why they make more money. Well… Duh! Some say that G-rated films only fill movie theaters with folks paying half-fare for matinees, which is why movie-makers focus on making the R-rated movies for full-fare payers. However, that is not how the dollars are stacking. You don’t have to be the sharpest knife in the drawer to do that math.

In the past 12 years, Americans have spent almost $101 billion on movie tickets. How does one put that in perspective? Crunchweb.net says $84 billion will bury a football field in 55 feet of money. There are 60 seconds in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 365 days in a year, and 1 billion seconds equals 1,903 years.

When you do a little digging, you find out that Executive Producers of films only make about 17 cents per dollar spent on a ticket. Actors, Directors, and Producers actually make about 3 cents per dollar spent on a ticket. And yet, that 3 cents multiplies into a staggering $20 million for an A-list actor like Brad Pitt for one flick. Adjusting for inflation and considering ticket sales, the all time highest money-maker is “Gone With The Wind”. The Second Place winner is “Star Wars” and coming in a tight third place is “Sound of Music”.

When is Hollywood going to face the music and learn the $ lesson? Why don’t theaters and studios learn the lesson?

It does not boil down to greed. If it were all about money, then there would be a lot more family movies being produced. I think it is more about the distorted world view that thinks because of proximity that certain things are true in all of society when it really isn’t.

Just because a co-worker uses foul language occasionally does not mean that all workers the world over use foul language. Being exposed to something on a regular basis makes it seem that it is a norm. It is only the proximity and continual exposure that gives the perception of societal norms. That is why Hollywood needs to get out of Hollywood in order to see what real life is all about. Look at what the movie-goer is spending the ticket money on and take that as a cue!

Face the facts Hollywood, we’re tired of movies that don’t take our values and interests into consideration. Wake up!

Gina Burgess is the author of Refreshment in Refuge published by WestBow Press in 2011. She earned her Master’s in Communication in 2013. Since 1972 she has taught Sunday school, discipleship training, and Bible studies because God gifted her with the motivational spiritual gifts of encourager and teacher. To read more from her heart check out her blog at refreshmentrefuge.blogspot.com, and her reviews of Christian writings at uponreflectionblog.blogspot.com.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More Than a Hint, Hollywood!
Scroll to Top