Good Ol’ American Values Trump Hollywood’s Agenda In Theaters

An annual box office study shows that in 2016, American moviegoers still preferred movies with strong conservative content or values over movies with strong liberal or leftist values, by about 6-to-one. 

The impact was felt overseas and on home video as well. 

Every year, Movieguide®, the family guide to movies and entertainment, conducts a comprehensive study of the content of the major movies released by Hollywood and the major independent film studios to see what kind of content moviegoers in the United States and overseas prefer. 

Movieguide®’s annual study of the political content in more than 275 movies shows that movies with strong pro-American, patriotic, capitalist, anti-socialist, anti-communist, and anti-statist content and values make much more money per movie than movies with strong Anti-American, anti-patriotic, welfare statist, Marxist, secular, atheist, leftist, radical feminist and/or very strong perverse content or values reflecting a radical, anti-human view. 

In fact, movies with at least some strong conservative values and content in 2016 made nearly six times more money overall last year as movies with at least some strong leftist, socialist or statist values and content, $71.09 million per movie versus only $12.45 million per movie. 

Movies with strong conservative content also totaled $7.85 billion cumulatively at the box office in 2016, compared to only $0.83 billion in 2016 for movies with strong liberal or leftist content. 

The box office figures don’t include the $119 million that the patriotic movie HIDDEN FIGURES from 2016 made in 2017. 

The more conservative movies released in 2016 included SULLY, CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, HACKSAW RIDGE, DENIAL, OPERATION CHROMITE, SING, ZOOTOPIA, ARRIVAL, HAIL, CAESAR!, THE INNOCENTS, THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR, ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY, QUEEN OF KATWE, FORSAKEN, HILLARY’S AMERICA, BARBERSHOP: THE NEXT CUT, EQUITY, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (2016), PO, BEN-HUR (2016), FINDING DORY, THE FINEST HOURS, HIDDEN FIGURES, THE JUNGLE BOOK (2016), RISEN, PATRIOTS DAY, TROLLS, EDDIE THE EAGLE, FREE STATE OF JONES, INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE, RACE, CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE, LONDON HAS FALLEN and OUR KIND OF TRAITOR, among others. 

Movies reflecting some strong or very strong Anti-American, left-wing, anti-capitalist, politically correct, socialist, atheist, radical feminist, pro-homosexual, and/or pro-communist content or values included CAPTAIN FANTASTIC, MONEY MONSTER, THE HANDMAIDEN, BIRTH OF A NATION (2016), BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK, THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR, FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM, MISS SLOANE, NOCTURNAL ANIMALS, VIVA, DOUGH, THE FOUNDER, JACKIE, A MAN CALLED OVE, EMBRACE OF THE SPIRIT, THE MERMAID, GOLD, NERUDA, DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID, DE PALMA, EAT THAT QUESTION, DESIERTO, WIENER DOG, HIGH-RISE, 20TH-CENTURY WOMEN, MOONLIGHT (2016), THE NEON DEMON and SAUSAGE PARTY, among others. 

“Movies with more conservative values not only do better in the United States,” said Dr. Ted Baehr, founder of Movieguide®, who presented highlights from Movieguide®’s 2017 Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry at the 25th Annual Faith & Values Awards Gala Feb. 10 at the Universal Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. “They also do better overseas.” 

For example, 50 percent of the Top 10 Movies Overseas in 2016 had at least some strong conservative content or values, but only 20 percent of them had any strong leftist or politically correct content or values at all. 

The percentage difference was even better among the Top 10 Home Video Sales of 2016 as of Nov. 1, 2016, where 80 percent of the top 10 movie sales on home video had at least some strong conservative values compared to 0 percent for movies with strong leftist values.

“The success of movies with at least some conservative values in 2016 is no fluke,” Dr. Baehr said. “It’s been true ever since we began doing our comprehensive political analysis 13 years ago in 2003.” 

He pointed out that the combined conservative versus leftist categories are particularly important because they factor out any anomalies in the database. They also show that, overall, conservative movies with solid or strong traditional, patriotic or capitalist moral and political values can usually earn at least four to as much as 12 times more money than leftist movies with solid or strong non-traditional, secular humanist, anti-capitalist, statist or politically correct moral and political values. 

“People want good to overcome evil, justice to prevail over injustice and liberty to conquer tyranny,” Dr. Baehr concluded. “They respond to strong heroes and even strong heroines, but they are turned off by radical anti-capitalist, social engineering schemes, left-wing political correctness and big government programs full of faceless bureaucrats.” {eoa}