04/14/99- Updated 11:07 AM ET

Sex doesn't sell?

By James Freeman

Why does Hollywood put out tons of movies filled with sex and violence? According to an amazing new study of entertainment industry finances, it's not because they make money. In fact, the more bare breasts and gunshot wounds a movie displays, the less profitable it is. Is this possible?

Writing in the current issue of Forbes, Father Robert Sirico reports on the stunning results of a study commissioned by the Dove Foundation, a non-profit group that promotes family values in movies. The study, which covered the period 1988-1997, revealed that the average G-rated film is more than eight times as profitable as the average R-rated film. In its first two years of release, the average R-rated movie makes a gross profit of just $11 million, while the average G-rated release does blockbuster business: $94 million in gross profits.

The home video market is where the family fare makes most of its money, but even if you look only at box office revenue, G-rated movies still outperform all others. As you move up the ratings scale from G to R, movies make less money the more sex and violence they contain. PG movies make more money than those with a PG-13 rating, and they in turn make more than R-rated films. According to Sirico, "This bears repeating: Family movies are the biggest moneymakers."

Given the source of these findings, you might be skeptical. After all, common sense says that a lot of us enjoy watching movies with sex and violence. But there's reason to think that Hollywood may be leaving money on the table when it comes to making family films.

Look at 1998, a year not included in the study. Five G-rated animated films did crazy business -- A Bug's Life, Antz, Mulan, Prince of Egypt and Rugrats. Disney's A Bug's Life is still in the top 20 among current releases, with more than $161 million in domestic box office revenues to date. Rugrats and Prince of Egypt are still chugging along at the $100 million level each. Now consider that Disney and the other studios don't have to pay $20 million a picture to the stars of animated films, and it's easy to see how these films can make huge profits.

Of course we don't all want to see G-rated movies, but if that's where the money is, why do just 3% of new releases carry the G rating? Even though R-rated movies make, on average, the least amount of money, studios release more than half of their movies with that rating attached.

In recent years, when angry protesters stood up at Time Warner shareholders meetings, it was usually to berate the company for offending their values in the shameless pursuit of profit. They had no idea. Apparently Time Warner makes its money on the wholesome stuff. Now angry shareholders may stand up and ask the board to stop throwing away their money on all that low-margin sex and violence.

So if the R-rated flicks inspire the occasional boycott and don't earn as much as G-rated films, why do studios make so many of them?

The standard Hollywood explanation is that they're really in the business of making art, not money. I understand that free artistic expression can't always be sized to fit somebody's rating system, but I don't think one movie out of 50 can truly be called "art." And if the story and the acting are strong, a film doesn't have to show every graphic detail to become a classic.

Sure, I've enjoyed plenty of R movies, but for every Goodfellas (R), there's an On The Waterfront (which was released before the ratings system, but would probably be labeled PG today). For every Unforgiven, there's a High Noon. For every Stripes, we've got a Tommy Boy.

Ask today's great directors about their favorite films and I'll bet you'd get a lot of nominees from the era before R-rated movies. And Francis Ford Coppola might want to puke if he reads this, but when I see The Godfather Parts One and Two edited for cable, I don't think I enjoy them any less. Almost all the classic lines -- from "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer" to "Leave the gun; take the canole" could be delivered under any rating. Okay, it's cool seeing Solozzo and Moe Green buy it, but what drives those movies are great characters and powerful story lines.

Since the studios can make great art and better money with a G or PG film, why do they keeping churning out so many R flicks? Beats me. Shareholders should be asking that question every chance they get.

James Freeman is Editor of the new online education magazine for kids, KnowledgeDaily.com. His column appears each Wednesday on USATODAY.com. To talk back to James Freeman, click here.

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