By David Hoekman
GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNALE March 1,1999

Dick Rolfe, Chairman of The Dove Foundation, hopes movie-makers take heed of a just-released study that says the average G-rated film produced eight times more gross profit than its R-rated counterpart.

Just to he sure, The Dove Foundation delivered copies of the full study to studio executives throughout the industry.

And, to drive the point home, the Grand Rapids-based profamily media advocacy organization sent the study to the top 200 mutual fund and the top 100 pension fund administrators.

"The reason we went to stockholders is all of these companies are publicly held corporations and as such we feel that the stockholder has a right to know how these studios are spending their money," Rolfe said.

Another point Rolfe wants the fund administrators to know is the average G-rated film produced a 78 percent greater rate of return on investment than the average R-rated film.

Rolfe, who calls himself the ambassador from polyester mid-America when he visits movie studio executives in Hollywood, does not believe fund administrators or studio executives will dismiss the profitability study as a product of "flyover country," the vast expanse between the East Coast and the West Coast. The names involved in the study provide credibility.

The Dove Foundation commissioned a study of all theatrical films rated by the Motion Picture Association of America from Jan. 1, 1988, through Dec.31, 1997. Paul Kagan Associates compiled the data and the numbers were crunched at the Seidman School of Business at Grand Valley State University.

"Seidman School of Business is very well-known in the investment community because of its connection to BDO Seidman, one of the top eight CPA firms in America," Rolfe said. "Paul Kagan is known by all the entertainment analysts and they all use his numbers. So I think it will carry with it a great deal of credibility from that standpoint and the investment press has been helpful in helping us get the word out to the stockholders and investors and fund administrators."

What is tough for Rolfe to understand is why, given those profitability statistics, 55 percent of the 2,380 films widely released during the study period were rated R, while only 3 percent qualified for the G rating. "There's not a CEO I know of that would keep his job if his company production was in that way," he said.

Rolfe would like to see a shift in the proportionality of films but not endless sequels of "Rugrats" and "Barney." "What we're asking Hollywood to do is something they're very good at: to make good comedies, dramas, actions, adventures, romantic stories, mysteries - but without exploding heads, naked body parts and foul mouths," he said. "They really don't need all of that gratuitous material to make a movie successful."

The Dove Foundation will do an annual report card to show the studios -- and investors -- how those studios are doing and to provide trending information.

Nine years ago, there was not an organization to promote the creation and distribution of wholesome family entertainment, let alone one to commission a study on film profitability.

Rolfe remembers that in the summer of 1990, he was invited to join a group of eight men that met in Southern California to share their frustration at being fathers of media-wise children. "We, frankly, were white-knuckling the remote control every time we rented a video or covering our kids' eyes and ears every time we took them to a movie," he said.

Since movie ratings were inconclusive and inconsistent or non-existent (over half of the videos in video stores have no rating at all because they were not released theatrically), the group decided to view films and identify which ones F were suitable for family viewing. A Dove seal was given to those movies the group approved.

The group got a big boost in 1991 when the Associated Press correspondent in Grand Rapids wrote about it, included the toll-free telephone number, and many newspapers picked up the story. "We began getting deluged by calls from people wanting this Dove approved list of family-value movies. So we decided at that time we should probably formalize this organization. We were just a project this group of fathers had gotten together to do," Rolfe said. The Dove Foundation officially incorporated as a nonprofit Michigan corporation in July 1991.

For funding, the group went to Holland to ask the late Ed Prince of the Prince Corporation and Prince Foundation for a grant. "Ed was so impressed by our goals and ambitions that he gave us three times what we asked for," Rolfe said. Currently, about one-third of the organization's revenue comes from grants from foundations, another third comes from sponsorships of programs and events, such as the Dove Family Film Festival and the Dove Movie Channel for Children's Hospitals, and the rest comes from individual contributions. There is also a for-profit Internet site at http://www.dove.org/shop because of the many requests for places where people could buy the approved videos. Those interested can buy the videos and the proceeds go back to the foundation.

Five people work at the headquarters at 535 E. Fulton, Suite 1A, and there is a large corps of volunteers and an active board of directors and an active board of advisers.

Rolfe's background primarily was in advertising, marketing, media relations and media management. He was the first general manager of Channel 54, a Christian TV station, publisher of a regional magazine called West Michigan Family in the mid-1980s and director of advertising for West Michigan Magazine. He owned his own media relations company in late 1980s and early 1990s called Communication Partners until The Dove Foundation was organized.

"I like a good debate and this job gives me an opportunity to do that in many different environments," he said. "I have been fortunate to meet some of the most influential people in Hollywood, and by that I don't mean the biggest movie stars, I'm talking about heads of studios and film directors and people who are really the movers and shakers.

"I've had an opportunity to share how middle America feels about films and film-making, and give them a different approach about how an audience would respond."

The Dove Foundation has always tried to follow godly principles. "We don't run this organization. God does. We all acknowledge that," Rolfe explained. "I suppose the most meaningful decision I made was to make God the chairman of my board."

Rolfe believes there are some changes in how Hollywood perceives Middle America, and he would like to think The Dove Foundation has had some influence on those changes of perception. Scott Sasa, the new head of entertainment at NBC, has just pledged that the network will present a traditional, middle-American family in their sitcoms instead of swinging singles from New York and Los Angeles. Disney said it was committed to making more family-oriented movies and fewer of what Rolfe called the "bang-bang, shoot-'em-up films."

He also believes some changes in studio fare come about because studio executives are embarrassed when they can't take their children or grandchildren to see many of the movies their studio produces.

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