‘Beattlejuice Beetlejuice’ and other hits from last weekend: Please, movie industry, give us something better than this

Unfortunately, the movie industry’s emphasis on violent movies is continuing. I’ve written for years about how there’s too much violence in movies, commenting every year on Academy Award nominated movies.

Here are the top movies from the weekend as reported by ShowTimes.com:

1. “Beattlejuice Beattlejuice” – $51.6 million

2. “Speak No Evil” – $11.5 million

3. “Deadpool & Wolverine” – $5.2 million

A reporter for National Public Radio said, excitedly, that movies are making a comeback after the pandemic in reporting the statistics for last weekend. But, movies such as those listed above are all about violence.

Violence in the media, and video games, too, is harmful to kids. I’ve written about it for decades.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says:

Exposure to violence in media, including television, movies, music, and video games, represents a significant risk to the health of children and adolescents. Extensive research evidence indicates that media violence can contribute to aggressive behavior, desensitization to violence, nightmares, and fear of being harmed.

The organization recommends:

Pediatricians should assess their patients’ level of media exposure and intervene on media-related health risks. Pediatricians and other child health care providers can advocate for a safer media environment for children by encouraging media literacy, more thoughtful and proactive use of media by children and their parents, more responsible portrayal of violence by media producers, and more useful and effective media ratings. Office counseling has been shown to be effective.

No one is paying attention to violence in the media. They should. With so much violence in the United States today, including two assassination attempts against a presidential candidate, corporations and government officials need to wake up and do something about violence in the media.

As I was doing research for this article, I wished, hopefully, for some better nonviolent movies. As always, it was wishful thinking.

An article in The New York Times Tuesday said these titles were possible nominees for Oscars next year:

• “Joker: Folie a Deux”
• “Nightbitch”
• “The Life of Chuck”
• “September 5”

And, of course, they’ll be the Disney movies, usually about some bad guy or group that needs to be taken down in fighting.

I usually watch about 30 movies to review the Academy Award nominated movies. As usual, I’m not looking forward to so many violent ones.