Sex doesn't sell?

A noted Christian television and film review organization says that contrary to the old adage, sex and nudity don't sell, according to the most recent assessment of top films.

The Christian Film and Television Commission's 2002 Annual Report to Hollywood, which analyzed the top 266 movies released in theaters in 2001, found that "movies with no sex or nudity do much better on average than movies with sex and nudity.

The group says movies with very strong moral content in them grossed about $48,181,984 last year, an average of more than twice the earnings of movies with sexual content and sexual nudity.

Films with "implied sex" averaged around $24,952,340, while movies with "depicted sex" took in around $15,541,123 each. Films with "excessive sexual content" earned an average of $15,898,593.

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The commission analyzes movie content annually.

"Movies released in 1999 and 2000 showed pretty much the same results as the movies in 2001," the commission said in its annual report. "For instance, movies in 2000 with no sexual content averaged $33.8 million at the box office, more than twice as much as movies with excessive or strong sexual content. Movies in 1999 with excessive sexual content earned only $14.3 million on average, while movies with no sexual content in 1999 averaged $37.9 million."

Additionally, researchers said films "with very strong Christian worldviews do much better at the box office than movies with non-Christian worldviews," according to the report.

"… Movies released in 2001 with a very strong Christian worldview earned nearly twice as much money (86 percent more money) on average, $43,593,518, than movies with a very strong non-Christian or anti-Christian worldview (including humanist, pagan, Romantic, Communist, feminist, occult, homosexual, and anti-patriotic worldviews), which averaged only $23,422,536 when combined together," said the report.

On average, about 18 percent more money was earned by films with a Christian or moral worldview than movies with a very strong secular humanist worldview, which earned only $37 million on average in 2001.

Also, such movies earned about 60 percent more money on average than movies with a very strong occult worldview, which earned only $27.3 million on average in 2001. Christian-based films took in some 80 percent more money on average than movies with a very strong pagan worldview, which earned only $24.2 million on average in 2001.

Films with a strong Christian worldview also earned:

• About 209 percent more money on average than movies with a very strong Romantic worldview (in a theological and philosophical sense), which earned only $14.1 million on average in 2001;
• About 570 percent more money on average than movies with a very strong Communist worldview, which earned only $6.5 million on average in 2001;
• About 8,407 percent more money on average than movies with a very strong homosexual worldview, which earned only $0.5 million on average in 2001; and,
• About 9,004 percent more money on average than movies with a very strong feminist worldview, which earned only $0.48 million on average in 2001
• About 129,000 percent more money on average than movies with a very strong anti-patriotic worldview, which earned only $33,842 on average in 2001.

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