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To: Cacique; All
If you like the story and you like the moral value you should see it, not to go see it but to add to the earnings.

This is our big chance people. Here on FR in every movie discussion you encounter you'll find the hoardes of people complaining about all the filth that Hollywood produces, the sex, the gratuitous violence, the foul language. You, we, want more Iron Giants and fewer Pulp Fictions. And you protest and you write letters and you complain and you boycott. But there's one thing you don't do: spend money on the movies you want more of. Hollywood doesn't care if you protest, actually they like it, that's free advertising (the holy grail of Hollywood is "no such thing as bad press", keep this in mind Potter bashers). They light cigars with your letter what they care about is money. When a movie makes a lot of money you will see a lot of movies like it, when it doesn't projects get canceled.

Look what happened in the mid 90s, we had Pulp Fiction that bloody swear fest (which I happened to like but that's for another day) made MONEY, lots of MONEY. So what followed, tons of tons of wannabe Tarantinos making movies with people killing each other, most of the clones sucked because the didn't understand why Pulp Fiction was cool (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is, IMHO, better a being Pulp Fiction than Pulp Fiction), but Hollywood didn't care they were riding a gravy train.

During the time of the PF-clones out came The Iron Giant, great family values animated movie, a little anti-gun but not really. Solid morals, no swearing, no blood and guts and very nicely animated. Hands down one of the best movies of the year (especially if good conservative values are your primary grading point). Also a total and complete flop, made no money, out of the theaters in two or three weeks, merchandising went nowhere. The message that was sent to Hollywood was that nobody really wanted family values movies, or at least not enough people to make it worth their while.

Even "low budget" movies cost a lot of money to make, then advertising and distribution costs generally double the outlay expense, Hollywood isn't going to put that kind of money on the line for proven flops. So what needs to happen, if you really want more family values movies, is to spend money. See the movie, buy the movie guide, buy the "movie versions" of the paperback (the ones that will have the movie posters as the cover), buy the toys for your little ones (or yourself, never to old to dig toys, that's what my yo-yo collection says). Spend spend spend, make these movies earn earn earn. Because here's your chance to tell Hollywood that a movie with strong Christian values, based on a book by a Christian author, can be profitable even if it's a really expensive special effects extravaganza.

Of course it doesn't stop here. You've got to keep your eye out for the next good movie and make sure that earns too. If you want more Iron Giants than Pulp Fictions you've got to make the Iron Giants more profitable than the Pulp Fictions, constistently and regularly. Because the only thing that Hollywood listens to is money, anything that doesn't effect the bottom line is just background noise.

79 posted on 11/28/2001 7:19:59 AM PST by discostu
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To: discostu
I agree with your argument 100%. If we want decent movies, we'd better go and watch them when they come along once in a while. I think that there's another reason for supporting LOTR: we might persuade Hollywood to pay attention to ensemble casts again, as opposed to just one or two stars.
82 posted on 11/28/2001 7:28:12 AM PST by slhill
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