Strong Message to Hollywood: The Big $ Is In Family Films

You've heard of the neutron bomb-like damage delivered by the current crop of anti-war films. It is likely that none of them, not one, will return the costs of production. While names and reputations are often termed bankable in Hollywood circles, there's a limit to the credit that investors will put up to only to send an R-rated message and lose money, even when they're invited to rub elbows with the likes of Redford, Cruise and Streep.

The lesson runs deeper.

Of the top ten grossing films of the year, all but one are rated either G or PG. The outlier was the unique '300,' at number seven for the year with revenues of $210 million.

The family films? All together the top nine have brought in more than $2.3 billion so far, with more on the horizon.

That's a message that Sony, Columbia, Paramount, Disney, Warner, Universal and Fox can hear and to which they and their shareholders can relate. There's some evidence that they're responding, as major sequels are tuned to PG-13 and new releases such as Ratatouille follow along the path of American Tail.

Measured in dollars, the least of the top ten made at least twice as much as Redford's recent ly deceased rant has lost. Measured in terms of reputation?

Priceless.