Hollywood Makes `R' Movies, While `G' Movies Make Money.

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Author: D'AGOSTINO, JOSEPH A.

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.

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 family-friendly 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."

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 starting 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."

Go: Holmes and Scott Wolf from TV's "Party of Five" star in Go (due April 9). Says the Hollywood Reporter: "In its preoccupation with sex, drugs, partying and living on the edge, Go has what it takes to appeal to today's jaded teens." One 17-year-old character in the movie enters into a drug deal for lack of rent money. Other young characters are simply drug addicts.

Apple Pie: Due for release May 28, Apple Pie features a teenage boy who "masturbates into a warm apple pie," said Newsweek. The boy's mother enjoys sex with her son's friends. But the plot's main device is a pact among a group of friends to lose their virginities by prom night. Co-producer Warren Zide said that he wanted his teen-aimed movie to get an R rating because "if you remember anything funny or interesting or emotional that happened in high school, it was rated R."

Killing Mrs. Tingle: Due July 30, Killing Mrs. Tingle features Katie Holmes from "Dawson's Creek" as a student who wants to be valedictorian so much that she plots to murder a teacher.

South Park--Bigger, Longer, Uncut: Slated for summer release, South Park--Bigger, Longer, Uncut is based on Comedy Central's popular animated series featuring grade-school children who curse like sailors, a piece of human feces as a character, and a small child who is killed as a joke in every episode.

As the Dallas Morning News recently pointed out, R-rated movies "supposedly not to be viewed by 16-year-olds (without adult supervision) are being aggressively aimed toward all high school students." Responded Miramax/L.A. studio president Mark Gill, "That's not problematic to me when I turn on the television every night and see stuff [on cable] that's more explicit than what you can see in an R-rated movie."

Actors Ryan Phillippe and Sarah Michelle Gellar play stepsiblings flirting with incest in Cruel Intentions.

PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): The TV show "South Park," in which a small child is killed in every episode, will soon be made into a movie.

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By JOSEPH A. D''AGOSTINO