Surprise! G/PG-Rated Films More Profitable
Libertas blog
This interesting article appeared in the Hollywood Reporter today on the profitability of ‘family’ fare - G or PG rated films - versus R rated films. A study commissioned by the Dove Foundation concluded that over the period from 1989 - 2003:
# The average G-rated film made 11 times more money than its R-rated counterpart.
# During that same time period, the industry produced nearly 12 times more R-rated films than G-rated films.
# And as an important footnote, ‘profit’ in this study does not account for “revenue derived from merchandising, licensing or fast-food tie-ins.” As noted in the report, “f those revenue streams were included, the average profit for G, PG and PG-13 films would rise dramatically, while the average profit for R-rated films would not, because sales of toys and other licensed products are rarely associated with R-rated films.”
Now, none of this information is really news to the ‘powers that be’ here in Hollywood. The studios have immensely sophisticated market research at their disposal, so everyone already knows this information - and still the R-rated films get made. This is not the function of Hollywood being ‘out of touch’ - it’s a question of people making conscious decisions to favor certain forms of entertainment over others.
There is an oft-repeated notion that ‘money’ is the name of the game in Hollywood - it isn’t. Ideology - acknowledged or otherwise - has played an enormous role in what sort of entertainment Hollywood has created since the late 1960’s. Our friend Michael Medved has written extensively on how the lifting of the Production Code coincided precisely with a steep drop in public attendance of motion pictures. And now, all these many years later, otherwise sane people are openly discussing whether theatrical distribution even has a future. It’s a sad state of affairs that we’ve come to, when Hollywood essentially goes out of its way to shrink its own audience.
The larger question is: will this madness ever end?"
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