Do films with positive messages make more money than those without?

 Stephen Follows 5 Comments September 7, 2020

One of the features I love most about movies is their ability to give us shared stories which entertain, inspire and soothe us. And in trying times, this function becomes ever more essential.

In the 1940s, musicals provided a colourful escape from war, stories of rebellion in the 1970s gave hope to audiences losing faith in political systems and modern-day superhero movies provide easy delineation between good and evil in murky times. So what will be the escapism of the 2020s?

Regular readers will know that I subscribe to MGM co-founder Samuel Goldwyn’s belief that “It is difficult to make forecasts, especially about the future”. Therefore, I won’t pretend to know what the next decade holds for on-screen stories. But I do want to share something I found while playing around with a few of my movie datasets which I think may be relevant.

I studied the financial performance of 4,271 movies which were released in the past two decades and looked for patterns with their levels of positivity… continued at link.

https://stephenfollows.com/do-films-with-positive-messages-make-more-money/