Hollywood keeps making movies families won't watch while 'Lord of the Rings' rerelease rakes in millions

Hollywood's profitable 'Lord of the Rings' rerelease reveals a creative gap, but studios ignore evidence that family-friendly films outperform today's darker fare.

Of course, movies reflect the culture, but they also reveal the hearts and minds of those running studios and writing the scripts for the stories being told.  Paul J. Batura is a writer, vice president of communications at Focus on the Family, and founder of the 4:8 Media Network. He can be reached via email Paul@PaulBatura.com or on X @PaulBatura.

Rereleasing profitable and popular movies is a tradition that goes back generations beginning with classics such as "The Wizard of Oz," "Gone with the Wind" and "Casablanca." Before television and then video cassette recorders, the theater was the only place to re-watch what you saw on your neighborhood big screen.

But studio executives recognized that viewers consider it satisfying to see a movie more than once (or twice or more!) – and sometimes even years or decades apart. Holiday or anniversary rereleases have proven profitable. With the advent of IMAX technology and digital restoration capabilities, it’s been easy to find an excuse to reintroduce some of the classics.