“Making wholesome movies is not only good citizenship, it’s good business.” That is Avalon Family Entertainment’s mission statement. Their goal is to produce premium-quality family movies with a budget far below the movies that are completed at typical studios.

Unknown to many, the biggest money makers are family movies. The Dove Foundation conducted a study that revealed rated R movies have an average gross profit of $11 million. That is a far cry below family movies which average $94 million. In addition to ticket sales at theaters, family-friendly movies bring in merchandising profits. Take a look at the Shrek movies, “The Incredibles,” “A Bug’s Life,” and Finding Nemo.” They have made, and are still making, an enormous amount of profit through the selling of toys, clothing, and other products, along with product endorsements, such as cereals. Even further profit results from the selling of Pay-Per-View movies, DVDs, and soundtracks.

Gary DePew, President and CEO of Avalon Family Entertainment, has worked with other studios before joining the Avalon group. The film “Hansel and Gretel” is his latest successful project. “Jack & the Beanstalk” is the company’s current project. “Jack” is played by Colin Ford, and James Earl Jones lends his voice to the Giant. Chevy Chase, Gilbert Gottfried, Christopher Lloyd, and Katey Segal are also in the movie. Avalon also has another movie in production: “Snow White.”

More live-action films that are based on familiar fairy tales are on Avalon’s upcoming projects list. Titles on this list include “Cinderella,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Gulliver’s Travels,” “Robin Hood,” “The Pied Piper of Hamlin,” and “The Three Little Pigs.” It is profitable to produce these movies as they are popular stories and people of all ages would love to see their favorite story-book characters come to life. Another reason they are so profitable is because there are no costs involved in obtaining rights to the stories, as they are considered to be public domain.