Spunky young Alex Benschneider of Denver is exactly the kind of kid Hollywood would love to turn into a lifelong movie addict.
Squirming with anticipation in a semi-dark theater before the show started, Alex listened carefully while her mother, Patrice O’Reilly, explained how hard it is to find a true G-rated movie. “Hoodwinked” seemed like a good candidate for the family, O’Reilly said, but the PG cartoon had too many double entendres and poor role models for her taste.
“I didn’t think it was the most appropriate movie for a 5-year-old,” O’Reilly concluded.
“Five-and-a-HALF-year-old,” Alex interjected.
Point being, Alex is too smart for dumb movies, and her parents are too savvy to go see just anything marketed as a kid flick. They want G movies, straight up.
Thus they are perfect guinea pigs for an experiment in G-rated movies aimed at countless parents across the nation who want reliable entertainment for small children. Alex and Patrice were waiting for a Saturday-morning start of the Kidtoon Films program at Cherry Creek. Kidtoon distributes G-rated movies throughout America for discounted Saturday and Sunday showings, contracting exclusively here with Colorado Cinemas at seven metro locations.
“The question we get most often is, ‘Why aren’t there more family-friendly movies?’ We come in with a promise to families and the community” that they will be entertained without unpleasant surprises, said Michelle Martell, chief of Kidtoon Films in California.
Their effort is part of a small groundswell to meet perceived demand for more G and PG movies. It also marks ongoing displeasure with the wide range of PG-13, which often gives crude movies like the “Bad News Bears” remake a patina of family credibility.
Missing a profit machine?
Walden Media’s enormous success with “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” bolsters that company’s efforts to put out quality family stock without creative compromise. Pixar and Disney just announced a merger that could revitalize Disney’s stumbling animation division.
And the Dove Foundation, an entertainment watchdog based in Michigan, continues to push its studies claiming to show that G-rated movies make more profits for Hollywood than any other ratings category.
“The studios are beginning to notice it,” said Dick Rolfe, president of the foundation. “What you’re seeing is a gravitation toward family entertainment. I’m not saying everybody will go there. But our study pointed out a truth – there is money in decency. There is an untapped market called the family that wants its entertainment in a more benign format.”
Rolfe said the foundation put its official stamp of approval on 41 films out of 165 reviewed in 2005, “the highest proportion in recent memory.”
Success in family movies isn’t quite that simple, according to those with financial stakes in the gamble. The Kidtoons films haven’t been filling the theaters, said Cliff Godfrey, owner of the Colorado Cinemas’ 109 screens in metro Denver.
“The reception has been very slow,” Godfrey said. “But we committed to stick with it for a while. It may take some time.”
Claiming that G-rated studio movies are the most profitable is a naive view, added Scott Hettrick, editor of DVD Exclusive, a trade magazine reporting on the film industry.
“Yes, ‘Finding Nemo’ may be the most profitable movie of the year, but for every one of those there are dozens of family movies put out for TV or DVD that don’t do well,” he said. “Look at ‘Dreamer”‘ he added, mentioning a fall Disney release that barely made back its $32 million budget at the box office.
“It’s not the G rating that gets people to come out. It’s the movie itself, it’s the quality of the animation,” Hettrick said. “The Disney kids are now going to see ‘Spider-Man’ and PG-13 movies. Believe me, if it were true, they would make more G. The studios always follow the money.”
Digital movie network
Kidtoons grew out of an animation and production company. Lots of animation goes straight to DVD these days, with only a dozen or fewer G-rated movies released by major studios each year.
The old-fashioned movie distribution system doesn’t make financial sense for these movies, many of them tied into products like “My Little Pony” or “Candyland.”
Kidtoons teamed with distributors who send advertisements digitally to movie theaters, creating a digital movie network without installing the expensive projection equipment now making its way to multiplexes. The animation does fine with the less sophisticated equipment, Martell said.
A new movie opens on the first weekend of each month, then replays Saturdays and Sundays through that month. Martell and her staff look for creative short movies to add before each feature, both to give the program an old- fashioned matinee feel and to expose kids to interesting animation. Audiences build each weekend as word gets around among families, mothers’ groups and birthday party planners.
Kidtoons splits box office revenue with the theater, but also takes a percentage of later DVD sales of the movies shown. “Because we increase the visibility of their DVD,” Martell said.
Many in the industry say they are at a loss to explain why the major studios don’t release more G-rated films. Disney used to have one ready for every school holiday, Godfrey said; “Now, they’re just not there.”
Rolfe blames it in part on what he calls “the award syndrome,” noting that “Chronicles” has moved into the top 30 all-time grossing movies, without any statue prospects from Hollywood. Family movies make great money but don’t build great resumés, he believes.
“Most filmmakers are more interested in getting a trophy than they are in making the highest-grossing movie of all time,” Rolfe said.
Martell blames it on scale – G movies do make consistent profits, but not always on the $100 million to $200 million “tentpole” scale the studios use to prop up their seasons.
“It’s a machine, and it’s almost not worth it to turn over the engine unless it’s going to be a giant blockbuster,” Martell said. “The way we do it is just to keep the machine running all the time. We don’t need one movie to be a huge success.”
Kidtoons hooked at least one new family on a recent weekend. Patrice O’Reilly said she and her husband planned to switch off with Alex at the movies every few weeks.
“You could get the same thing on DVD, I suppose,” O’Reilly said. “But coming to the theater is still special, and you can have that special time with your kids. We were thrilled to find this.”
Staff writer Michael Booth can be reached at 303-820-1686 or mbooth@denverpost.com.
