How Biblical and Moral Content Works in Hollywood

Publication date: March 26, 2024

How Biblical and Moral Content Works in Hollywood

By the Movieguide® staff

Movies with Christian or moral viewpoints have dominated the 2023 box office. As Hollywood creates more immoral content, moviegoers who put their money behind them prove that family-honoring movies always work.

Movieguide®’s 2023 Report to the Entertainment Industry found that of the top 25 films at the domestic box office, films with very strong Christian and redemptive viewpoints averaged $178,156,715, 100% better than those with very strong, dark romances. Paganism, and humanity. Or false religious views.

Beyond global perspectives, films that avoided foul language made the most money ($257.16 million) on average. As obscenities and profanity increased, box office profits steadily declined.

The sexual content also failed to achieve success at the box office.

According to a Movieguide® report, “Movies with extreme sexual content made no money at all among the top 25 films at the domestic box office in 2023.”

Instead, films without explicit sexual nudity in the top 25 made more money on average than those with some explicit or very explicit sexual nudity.

The graphic violence struggles to attract audiences. Per Movieguide®:

…The four films with extremely strong, extreme, and/or graphic violence in the top 25 made the least amount of money, when it comes to graphic violence, averaging just $187.33 million in the United States and Canada in 2023. or moderate violence averaged $274.26 million among the top 25 films, while films containing strong action violence or strong slapstick violence averaged $198.48 million.

No films containing heavy alcohol or drug use made the top 25 list. Films that deal with a few diverse theological or moral issues made the most money overall or on average. However, Movieguide® points out that “most films contain at least some assorted immoral content to challenge the main characters, heroes and heroines.”

Based on a Movieguide® analysis of 170 theatrical films released nationally in the past year, “Family-friendly films that reflect strong Christian, redemptive, moral, biblical, traditional, or conservative principles and values ​​typically perform significantly better at the U.S. box office.” Canada is one of those films that does not contain such strong content.

“When we add all the negative content or worldview elements together, it becomes clear that films with anti-Christian worldviews and strong or extremely immoral and unbiblical content are box office poison,” Movieguide® notes.

Why is the film’s worldview important?

“A worldview is a comprehensive way of interpreting all of reality,” explains Movieguide®.

According to data from Nielsen, eMarketer, and the U.S. Census Bureau, the average child or teen spends more time consuming media (66,504 hours) than their parents (2,000 hours), at church (800 hours), or at school (11,000 hours). .

With so much time spent consuming content, the worldviews portrayed in the media will profoundly impact children.

“Numerous scientific studies show that uncontrolled media consumption leads to increased violence, aggression, sexual promiscuity and illicit drug use among children and adolescents,” Movieguide® says in its report. “Many other studies also show that uncontrolled media consumption leads to an underdeveloped society.”

“In such a society, impressionable children and adolescents are subject to ideological whims, a decadent popular culture, and an institutional school system that often seems out of control and devoid of any transcendent objective standards of truth, goodness, justice, and beauty,” the report adds.

Fortunately, films with at least some Christian and redemptive content or values ​​accounted for two-thirds (68.24%) of the films reviewed by Movieguide® in 2023.

Likewise, the number of films with some moral or biblical content or values ​​exceeded 81% for the twelfth time in the past thirteen years, “reaching 86.47% of the 170 films reviewed in 2023.”

“Clearly, no matter how you slice it, movies that fit Movieguide®’s high Christian, ethical, moral, biblical, theological, spiritual, production, aesthetic, and entertainment principles, values, and standards consistently fare as well or significantly better with moviegoers than those movies,” the report concludes. Those principles, values ​​and standards.

For those who want to make it big in Hollywood, positive, upbeat, family-friendly films will bring the greatest chance of success.

All information has been collected from Movieguide® 2024 Report to the Entertainment Industry.