Hollywood has been turning bangs into bucks for almost a century. Action films have guaranteed millions at the box office. But after Disney's £100 million flop with Pearl Harbor, movie bosses are questioning the mantra that mayhem means money.
A new study has revealed that while big action films generate headlines, family films are more profitable. Only three of the top 10 grossing productions have had a parental guidance rating. The 1939 classic Gone With the Wind is the most profitable film ever made, followed by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Fantasia (1940), Pinocchio (1940), Bambi (1942), The Sound of Music (1965) and 101 Dalmatians (1961). Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977) and ET: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) are the only films in the top 10 with a PG rating. None of the top 10 has an age limit.
Publication of the study comes days after Peter Schneider, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, resigned over the Pearl Harbor flop. With its 40-minute sequence of bombs, firestorms and terror - making it the most expensive film ever made - Pearl Harbor was to have been the next Titanic-style blockbuster, but last week it sank to number five in the US box-office ratings behind Shrek - the latest release from Disney's arch-rival, DreamWorks.
Dr Abraham Ravid, an expert on the film industry and professor of finance and economics at Rutgers University in New Jersey, analysed the highest-grossing films of the twentieth century. He found 'peace and plenty' films attracted bigger audiences than 'shoot 'em up' blockbusters.
'Big budget violent films do not bring significantly higher profits,' Ravid said. 'You do better with a family-friendly feature. So it's not just a moral or social argument against violence, but a financial one too.'
Violent screen epics can make millions in their opening weekends and outrun family films abroad, but Ravid says that, once video revenue is taken into account, family movies outperform bloody sagas.
In Beyond Morality and Ethics: The Profitability of Violent Films, Ravid analyses 200 films released between 1991 and 1993. According to box-office revenues and ticket sales, G-rated films - the American equivalent of Britain's U certificate - made most profits.
Ravid says his study disproves the studios' theory that brutal scenes sell well because non-English speaking audiences can readily understand action, violence and special effects that need little dialogue.
