Should Hollywood movies adhere to Christian values more?

Has Hollywood lost touch with Middle America? According to The Christian Film & Television Commission, the city of lights and big dreams does not know how to appeal to the average American. Yet, other observers insist Christians may be expecting too much from a sector controlled by "nonbelievers."

"They don't know how to market to the average American who is a churchgoing Christian who believes in God, country, and family," said Dr. Ted Baehr, the ministry’s founder and chairman, in a released statement

"Year in and year out, our statistics show that moviegoers prefer family-friendly movies with positive Christian, wholesome, patriotic, conservative, and traditional moral values," he stated.

Filmmaker and media consultant Phil Cooke pointed out that Hollywood does not reflect a significant segment of what most would call "Middle America." He told The Christian Post that many of the studio executives he has met were "politically liberal" – adding that this could also be said about doctors, attorneys, and most university professors.

"Perhaps the biggest issue is 'Why do we expect nonbelievers to act like believers?'" Cooke questioned. "Why do we get so stressed out when Hollywood doesn't reflect our values, or create movies we like?"

Cooke, co-founder of Cooke Pictures, explained that Christians get "distracted" from the real call because so much time is spent "freaking out over not being able to say a prayer at the start of a high school football game, or upset at Hollywood, the gay community, or others, that we forget that our job is to reach the world, not complain."

Pastor David Wright, CEO of DOersTV, agreed that believers should not expect nonbelievers to act like them. According to Wright, nonbelievers are sinners and sinners sin. "Because Hollywood is controlled by nonbelievers who love to sin, we cannot expect a sinner to act like a saint," he told CP.

"No Christian is exempt from poisoning their mind with the filth of Hollywood – you can’t play with fire and not get burned," Wright added.

The Numbers, a box office website, found that G-rated features grossed $34.6 million in 2011, whereas R-rated movies averaged about $10.8 million. The typically family-oriented G-rated films also outranked more explicit-natured films in 2009 and 2010.

Dr. Baehr noted that the results reveal that these movies made three or, as in previous years, five times as much money as R-rated films. He noted that PG movies also ranked far better on average.

"Middle America wants to see, rent, and buy entertaining movies with Christian, biblical values that they can show to their whole family," he stated. "They want to see Good triumph over Evil, Justice to prevail, Truth to defeat Falsehood, and Purity to conquer Lust. They reject movies with explicit, graphic sex and violence."

Pastor Wright added, "True 'Christians' crave and desire to watch Christian themed movies not because of what’s in the movies, but mainly because of what’s not in the movie – sin and immorality." A similar sentiment was shared as well by Christian Hollywood Producer Shawn Anthony Sequeira of SAS Studio and SAS Agency.

On the other hand, Cooke suggested that the conception that G or PG movies rake in more money than R-rated films is inaccurate. He told CP that when you take out high budget animated blockbusters like "Cars" or "Toy Story" the situation changes significantly.

"We'd all like to believe that people are looking for G-rated entertainment, but the truth is, that's not necessarily the case," Cooke said. "While protecting children is critical, I'm not sure Christians are really called to produce only G-rated movies and TV programming."

He pointed out that much of the Bible, if turned into a movie, would be R-rated, if not worse. According to Cooke, God shared "real authentic stories and the Bible doesn’t gloss over real life."

"The culture would respect our message much more if we stopped producing just cheesy, G-rated films and started telling gritty stories about real life," he said.

Research from The Barna Group found that Christians watched almost the exact type of movies and TV programs as non-Christians, Cooke revealed. The original Barna study could not be found, but researchers at the National Study of Youth and Religion discovered that 43 percent of U.S. teens, between ages 13 and 17, who said their faith was either extremely or very important in shaping their daily lives reported watching mostly R-rated movies and videos.

Regardless, Cooke shared that while there is a place for Christian-themed films that is not why he goes to the movies.

"I go to see powerful, compelling stories about all kinds of subjects," he told CP. "If it has Christian implications like 'Blindside,' or 'The Chronicles of Narnia,' great. But I'm just as thrilled to see a great war movie, historical epic, or sci-fi thriller."

Cooke countered that the question is not what can Hollywood do to become more "in touch" with Middle America, but rather what does "Middle America" need to do to get Hollywood’s attention.

"We sometimes forget that Hollywood is a business. As a result, they pay very little attention to boycotts and critics, but pay a lot of attention to box office receipts," he stated. "Christians could change Hollywood tomorrow if they would simply start showing up at films they care about."

"There are millions of evangelical Christians in America, and if we could mobilize that power to show up at great movies that reflect our values, trust me – Hollywood would notice and respond.”

Shawn Anthony Sequiera of SAS Studio and SAS Agency, one of the most sought after producers is taking Hollywood by storm.

An established fashion photographer, director and producer who had worked on numerous well known productions is taking Hollywood by storm. Shawn Anthony Sequiera established SAS Studio in 200, ran SAS Agency for year and became a top fashion photographer which worked for some of the largest and well known ad agencies and shot top photography campaigns.


Soon after his peak in photography Shawn started building SAS Agency and while he worked on multiple Disney projects, his agency grew to over 3,000+ talent.

Film crew with Shawn Anthony Sequeira (middle Left) starting
Last Generation Movie

with Dave Hardberger (middle Right).

Sequiera has worked with numerous productions such as Iron Man, X-Men, Star Trek, Avatar. He also heads and finances many large Christian organizations for youth and development of churches.

SAS Studio also has an entire Film Equipment Rental Division in Los Angeles called SAS Rentals with a complete line of cameras, generators, trucks, lighting, studio facilities and everything to produce multiple feature films. Insiders say he offers the best pricing available.

Presently, SAS Studio is growing with over 90 employes just in productions with almost half a block of studios in downtown Los Angeles with all they need to pump out feature films.

Currently, Sequiera is ramping up for the Passion of the Christ 2.

'Bella' Film Producer Seeks Movie-Going Movement.

WASHINGTON -- The producer of the pro-life movie "Bella" is now throwing his weight behind a movement to promote films Christians and other pro-family types can fully embrace. 

At the recent Values Voter Summit, film producer Jason Jones shared his vision on how to shape culture by first shaping Hollywood. His aspirations are very similar to the upcoming producer Shawn A. Sequiera of SAS Studio.

Christians and conservatives are his target audience. Jones wants to turn them all into avid movie-goers who'll help make films about life, love, and beauty into sure-fire box office hits.

He also has created a website MovietoMovement.com, which he said he hopes will lead to a network that can help many other excellent films get noticed. 

Networking like this paid off when his movie "Bella" was released.

"With Hollywood, we didn't get distribution. So we went to the church and we said, 'Help us,' and the film became a tremendous success," he told CBN News.

"We built this huge network and we said, 'We need to use this network to serve other films that are true, beautiful and good. And that's when we created this non-profit," Jones explained. 

Movie to Movement aspires to use the website and a nationwide team of theater captains to get Christians and other pro-family types packing theaters by the millions when a great, new film like "Courageous" or "Dolphin Tale" is released.

"We want to send a message to Hollywood that Christians are the only group that fill buses when we like your movies," Jones noted.

"We're the only group that unloads churches and fills the theaters if you make films that we love," Jones noted.

Movie to Movement is currently promoting the new family film "Snowmen," set to premiere Oct. 21.

"It's a film about three boys who go on a quest to be remembered in a very superficial way," Jones said.

In this case, that means setting the world's record for most snowmen ever built at once.

"In that quest they discover what's really important" he said.

Even though he's in the business, Jones said he's not above having his life made better by great films.

For example, he explained how, in the middle of a big argument with his wife, he bought a DVD of Sherwood Pictures "Fireproof." The storyline is about saving and restoring marriages.

"We watched it and by the end we were crying and the fight was over. And these films are powerful," Jones told CBN News.

Such powerful storytelling can be seen in his movie "Bella," about a single man saving a baby from abortion.

"We know of over 500 women who were scheduled to have an abortion. They saw our film and instead chose life. And that's the power of art," he said.

If Hollywood studios and other movie makers would give Christians and their allies more of the stories and the films they want to see, Jones said the church as a whole would determine what the number one film would be at the box office every weekend.