Posted on 06/11/2008 1:33:36 PM PDT by Simi Valley Tom
Hollywood, Calif. – Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of MOVIEGUIDE®, a family guide to movies and entertainment, is delighted to see that this weekend at the boxoffice family films win again.
“We see it time and again,” Baehr noted. “Movies aimed for the family, without excessive negative elements of sex, violence or foul language, consistently perform higher at the box office.”
This weekend KUNG FU PANDA, a family oriented animated film from DreamWorks Pictures, took the top box office spot in a head to head opening with the Adam Sander sexual innuendo drenched YOU DON’T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN from Sony Pictures. PANDA ended its opening with $60 million at the boxoffice with ZOHAN coming in second at only $40 million.
Reflecting on the summer boxoffice, Dr. Baehr says, “While there have been some very troubling and negative movies so far this summer, the winners are the ones that are aimed for the family audience with a minimum of negative elements. Movies like NARNIA, INDIANA JONES and IRON MAN are the ones really attracting viewers.
“We pray that parents, families, children, and teenagers will continue to make the right entertainment choices, to choose the good and reject the bad.”
MOVIEGUIDE® annually publishes box office numbers compared to content elements as part of its Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry at their gala award ceremony in February in Beverly Hills. Year in and year out, the figures show that family-friendly movies with biblical values usually make the most money, nearly 100 percent of the time, at all levels.
For more information, please visit www.movieguide.org or call 1-800-577-6684.
The only Adam Sandler movie I liked was Happy Gilmore.
Because it was a movie about hockey?
It sure wasn’t a movie about golf =)
The Price is Wrong b-—h! ;)
Click was pretty good. I also liked him in Mr. Deeds (remake) and The Waterboy.
Yeah no one is seeing ‘Sex in the City’. /sarc
‘Punch Drunk Love’ was nice. Though it wasn’t really an ‘Adam Sandler’ movie.
Of course Zohan had 2/3 the production budget of Panda, so 2/3 the revenue makes the over all math a break even.
“50 First Dates,” with Drew Barrymore, was funny and (mostly) sweet.
Adam Sandler movies are a wild card for me. I liked Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore. The Wedding Singer was more of a chick flick, and Click seemed a little overly sentimental at times, but both were enjoyable.
On the other hand, he has made some bad ones. Little Nicky is one of the stupidest movies I have ever seen. The Prince of Darkness portrayed as a cool guy? Hell portrayed as the ultimate party? WTF?
“The Waterboy” was pretty funny too.
I remember Bob Dole denouncing Hollywood back in '96, then was forced to admit he hadn't seen any of the movies he was speaking out against.
We all know family friendly movie do quite well; that's why they make them. But is it the opinion of Ted Baehr that no adult themed movies should ever be made? Should there never have been a Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Schindler's List, or Blazing Saddles simply because they weren't family friendly?
What is the point here? I like a good dose of extreme violence and profanity every once in a while. Baehr says we should "choose the good, and reject the bad". Does that mean we should reject Die Hard or The Departed because they had extreme violence and profanity?
How about we just don't take our kids to R-rated movies. Fair?
H20!
GATORADE!!!
H2O!!!
I don't think to many people want to return to the bad old days of the "Legion of Decency." Of course, the Hays Code was scrapped by good old fashioned economics, movies HAD to become more adult to distinguish themselves from the television shows that were taking away many of their customers.
I enjoyed “Fifty First Dates”, “Spanglish”, and the “Wedding Singer”.
I draw a distinction between Baehr and someone like Wildmon.
Baehr is saying that Hollywood goes out of it’s way to make movies that are family unfriendly to their own financial detriment. They add one or two scenes that are unnecesary in many movies just to get that ‘R’ rating.
No one would suggest, for example, that Die Hard would have been rated PG-13 if only “scene 14” or only if the f-word wasn’t in it (ironically, the lastest Die Hard was rated PG-13 and was my second favorite of the series by far).
Likewise, he isn’t suggesting that any movie should be something that you can take an eight year old to.
Wildmon and his group, however, would argue exactly that.
If the number of ‘R’ rated movies were cut in half and the number of ‘G’ and ‘PG’ rated movies were doubled, Hollywood would have a stellar year of ticket sales. I don’t think that’s a puritanical approach, I think it’s a smart financial approach.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildmon
He seems to be a real piece of work. There's nothing like a pretentious jackass who sees virtue in leading a moral crusade against Three's Company.
Yes, 50 first dates was very sweet ... would have been better without the vulgar slapstick they seem to throw into every Sandler movie.
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