Faith & Values Are for Real!

Highlights from Dr. Ted Baehr’s 2018 Movieguide® Report to the Entertainment Industry

By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST News Service

LOS ANGELES, CA (ANS – February 3, 2018) — For the 26^th year in a row, the Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry by Movieguide®: The Family Guide to Movies and Entertainment, shows clearly that moviegoers prefer relatively clean, heroic, family-friendly movies with Christian, biblical, redemptive, conservative, and patriotic faith and values.

This was revealed by Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and publisher of Movieguide® (www.moveguide.org), while speaking at the 26^th Annual Movieguide® Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment in Industry held at the Universal Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles on Friday, February 2, 2018.

“Despite a couple disturbing trends, 2017 was another big year for family movies and movies with faith and values,” said Dr. Baehr.

For example, the most family-friendly movies averaged $51.70 million per movie while the least family-friendly movies averaged only $11.67 million.

Also, 90% of the Top 10 Movies in the United States and overseas in 2017 contained strong or very strong Christian, redemptive, biblical, moral content, including such movies as BOSS BABY, DESPICABLE ME 3, JUSTICE LEAGUE, THOR: RAGNORAK, and WONDER WOMAN, among others.

Furthermore, family-friendly movies with absolutely no foul language, sex, explicit nudity, or substance abuse earned the most money, significantly more money than movies with such explicit content.

Each year, Movieguide® analyzes all of the major theatrical movies according to basic biblical principles, morality and theology from a Christian perspective.

In 2017, movies with very strong Christian, redemptive or moral content and values averaged $57.84 million at the domestic box office, but movies with very strong Non-Christian, false or immoral worldviews averaged only $10.49 million.

But movies with very strong secular humanist or atheist content or worldviews did even worse, averaging only $1.16 million per movie!

Also, Movieguide® identified 75 theatrical movies from 2017 that contained at least some strong or very strong Christian, redemptive content, an increase of 60% from 2012, when there were only 47 such movies. In addition, those movies totaled a whopping $5.68 billion at the box office in 2017 in Canada and the United States alone.

Dr. Baehr noted that, according to recent stats, there are more than 235 million Christians, including children of Christian parents, in America, and 2.48 billion Christians globally.

** Domestic Box Office

Of the Top 10 Movies at the Domestic Box Office in 2017:

• Ninety percent (90%) of the Top 10 in 2017 had at least some strong or very strong and even overt Christian, redemptive, biblical, or moral content or worldviews (CC, CCC, BB, BBB), but only 30% had strong or very strong non-Christian, immoral or mixed worldviews.

• Also, 60% of the Top 10 actually had a strong or very strong Christian, biblical, moral, or redemptive worldview (CC, CCC, BB, BBB).

• In fact, 60% of the Top 10 had strong or very Christian content or worldviews (CC, CCC), but only one, 10%, of the Top 10 had any strong or very strong anti-Christian (AbAb, AbAbAb) or humanist/atheist (HH, HHH) content!

• In addition, only 10% had any strong or very strong occult content (OO or OOO) (two had some light occult content [O]).

• Only 10% had any strong or very strong false religious elements or false theology (FRFR or FRFRFR).

• Only two, or 20%, of them had some light overt anti-Christian, anti-Semitic or anti-Biblical elements (Ab), but none of them had any strong such content (AbAb, AbAbAb).

• Only one, or 10%, had a strong or very strong Romantic worldview in terms of the Romantic philosophy of the French pseudo-intellectual Jean-Jacques Rousseau (RoRo or RoRoRo).

• Only one, or 10%, had any strong or very strong humanist content (HH or HHH), and none of them had any humanist evolution (Ev, EvEv, EvEvEv) content or elements.

• None of them had any Communist or socialist content (Co, CoCo, CoCoCo, So, SoSo, SoSoSo).

• Only one, or 10%, had any strong or very strong anti-American or anti-patriotic content (APAP or APAPAP).

• In contrast to this negative socio-political content, 40% had at least some strong or very strong Pro-American, patriotic, pro-capitalist, anti-socialist, or conservative content.

• All of the Top 10 had absolutely no references to smoking or intoxicating or illegal drugs like marijuana or hash, cocaine, heroine, or “magic mushrooms,” etc. (No D).

• Forty percent (40%) had at least one scene of drunkenness in them (AA), but none of them had any excessive or very strong scenes of alcohol abuse (AAA).

• None of the Top 10 (0%) had any depicted sexual content in them (SS or SSS), but 60% did have some light or implied sexual references or behavior (S).

• Only one, 10%, had any explicit sexual nudity in it (NN or NNN), and it was only in one brief scene.

• Three, or 30%, had at least some very strong, excessive or graphic violence (VVV), but 50% had lots of action violence (VV).

• Two, 20%, of the Top 10 were rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America.

** Overseas Box Office

Of the Top 10 Movies Overseas in 2017:

• Nearly all, 90%, of the Top 10 Movies Overseas in 2017 had strong or very strong Christian, redemptive, biblical, and/or moral (CC, CCC, BB, BBB) content or worldviews, earning nearly 88%, or nearly $5.719 billion, of more than $6.583 billion!
• Also, 70% actually had strong or very strong Christian, redemptive or moral (CC, CCC, BB, BBB) worldviews, earning almost $4.719 billion out of about $6.583 billion, or nearly 72% of the total amount for the Top 10 Movies Overseas in 2017.
• Only two, or 20%, of the Top 10 had a strong or very strong, unacceptable worldview (HH, HHH, PaPa, PaPaPa, RoRo, RoRoRo, OO, or OOO).
• Only one, or 10%, was rated R.
• None of them (0%) had any strong or depicted sexual content (SS or SSS).
• Also, 90% had no sexual nudity at all!
• All of them had no implied, depicted or extreme illegal drug use or references, and only one of them, 10%, had any smoking.
• Only 40% had any scenes of drunkenness in them (AA or AAA), and none of them had any extreme alcohol abuse (AAA).
• Only two or 20% had a very strong amount of violence (VVV), but another 60% did have at least some strong action violence (VV).
• Only one or 10% of the Top 10 Movies Overseas in 2017 had an unacceptable rating from MOVIEGUIDE® (Minus 3 or Minus 4).
• Only 10% of the Top 10 Movies Overseas had any discernible anti-Christian, anti-Biblical or anti-Semitic content (Ab, AbAb, or AbAbAb), but 30% had some light false religion (FR) and 10% had some strong or very strong false religion (FRFR or FRFRFR).

** Political Content in 2017 Movies

Dr. Baehr went on to say that movies with “Strong Conservative Values” do best! He added that the strong conservative content measured included movies with Pro-American, patriotic, capitalist, anti-communist, anti-socialist, anti-statist, and/or very strong moral values reflecting biblical ethics. The strong liberal/leftist content included movies with Anti-American, anti-patriotic, anti-capitalist, communist, socialist, statist, very strong radical feminist, atheist, and/or politically correct content reflecting left-wing identity politics and left-wing multiculturalism.

He said, “Our political database includes a few movies containing both liberal and conservative content, which can, of course, cancel one another out. Also, not all the movies in the sample were thoroughly conservative, liberal or leftist (some of the political content may be strong or overt but brief).”

Author of THE CULTURE-WISE FAMILY and HOW TO SUCCEED IN HOLLYWOOD (WITHOUT LOSING YOUR SOUL), Dr. Baehr is chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission® (CFTVC) ministry and publisher of its family guide to movies, Movieguide® (www.movieguide.com). CFTVC and Movieguide® are an international non-profit ministry dedicated to “redeeming the values of the entertainment industry by influencing industry executives and by informing and equipping the public about the influence of the entertainment media.”

For more information, visit www.movieguide.org or call (805) 383-2000, and for an interview with Dr. Ted Baehr, please contact Nicole at (805) 383-2000 or nicole@movieguide.org.

Note: To read my previous story on the winners at this year’s gala awards ceremony, please go to: https://www.assistnews.net/index.php/component/k2/item/3657-the-boss-baby-darkest-hour-and-the-star-were-big-winners-at-friday-s-26th-annual-movieguide-faith-values-awards-gala

Photo captions: 1) Dr. Ted Baehr speaking. 2) Dr. Ted Baehr with his wife, Lili. 3) One surprise celebrity on this year’s red carpet was legendry Hollywood actress, Bo Derek, who is seen here after being interviewed by Dan Wooding. (Photo: Alex Murashko Jr.) 4) Dr. Baehr with his daughter, Evy, before this year’s Movieguide® Gala. 5) Dan Wooding interviews Dr. Ted Baehr on the red carpet at a Movieguide® Gala.

About the writer: Dan Wooding, 77, is an award-winning author, broadcaster and journalist who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, Alfred and Anne Wooding, and is now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for nearly 55 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. Dan has written numerous books, the most recent of which is Mary, My Story from Bethlehem to Calvary (http://marythebook.com/), a novel about the life of Jesus through the eyes of his beloved mother. It is based on some 365 scriptures. Before he and his family moved to the United States, Dan was a senior reporter with both the Sunday People and the Sunday Mirror and also did interviews for the BBC. He has reported from the Movieguide® Awards during almost all of them, including the first one some 26 years ago at the Hollywood Press Club.

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