Posted on 04/27/2014 6:18:49 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Over the weekend, the religious film "Heaven is for Real" performed extremely well at the box office, earning $22.5 million. It's the largest Easter opening for a faith-based film, blowing past Johnny Depp's "Transcendence." It's also the fourth recent Christian film that has taken off at theaters, following "Son of God," "God's Not Dead," and Darren Aronofsky's "Noah."
The success of the genre has spurred discussions about a Bible boom at the box office and whether 2014 is the year of the Christian film.
But BoxOffice.com chief analyst Phil Contrino tells us we shouldn't be surprised by how well these movies are performing.
"Religious crowds are underserved, and they have been for a while now," Contrino tells Business Insider. "What you're seeing is a big section of the population that wants movies that speak directly to them with themes they can relate to. So there's no surprise that's there's this rush out."
For those who may feel like the success of Bible-based movies kind of just sprung up, Contrino says that's simply not the case. For one, 2004's wildly successful "Passion of the Christ" proved there was an interest in religious films.
That movie ended up making north of $611 million worldwide. (It was made on a $30 million budget.)
Not until History’s “The Bible” miniseries pulled in huge ratings last year have we seen a big push again from Hollywood to target a religious demographic in theaters. In fact, "Son of God" — one of the films performing well right now — also comes from Mark Burnett, who produced the successful History series.
So far, "Noah" has made $301.3 million at the box office — far from the earnings of "Passion.”
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Some of them are not Christian movies. They are intended to subvert—not convert.
Folks should view some of the critics reviews of the some of the recent Christian movies on Rotten Tomatoes. They’re awful...
But then look at the ratings for movies like Broke Back Mountain and Blue is the Warmest Color and they are just glowing.
Hollywood would rather make movies to insult, belittle, and marginalize the Bible and lose money doing so while at the same time anything that involves buggery is hailed as art and put on a pedestal by the critics.
I’m surprised movies like “Heaven is for Real” gets made at all.
Hollywood is the modern day Sodom!
Noah was not a Christian film. It was an humanistic earth worshiping movie. God was not mentioned other than mocking.
Pray America wakes up
That’s my take as well.
e.g. The Last Temptation of Christ
These aren’t Christian movies and aren’t considered such by many of us. Hollywood may use a title Christians are familiar with to earn more money...and it seems they do. Amazing to me.
Our Church just finished a six week movie experience for Easter. I didn’t enjoy and again think money is the chief motivator.
When an atheist produces an Old Testament story [Noah], be forewarned. On the other hand, God’s Not Dead missed the mark. There is a need for well-done Christian movies—a huge market, worldwide.
I went to my local theater for the only movie I think I will see this year until all others come out on Bluray, that was Captain America. I get so tired of all the liberal crap being pushed out onto the big screen that I just clam up, maybe a year later when they are in the bargain bins at Walmart will I even consider buying it and watching.
God’s Not Dead merely encouraged the faithful. It had a chance to reach out to the Lost and decided to stay safe. My son, a Freshman Theatre Major in college, and an aspiring playright, believes he can do this better.
There may be a market for “Chrisitan” films, but what our culture really needs are solid, well-made movies with good stories which incidentally portray Christians and other conservatives as normal, healthy people, instead of evil, weird or foolish.
He may be on to something. God’s Not Dead would have been a lot more interesting if it had included more about the Chinese guy. The interviews with him prior to the movie’s release was more compelling than the movie itself. He has an MD and a Ph.D. in laser physics—and he came to his faith through contemplation and a superior intellect.
Doesn’t matter. The don’t bother to vote anyway. (4 million skipped in 2012)
The same reason environmentalist movies crush it at the box office: they have a deeply loyal following that’s willing to put up with bad movies to support the message.
The best films are always the ones who show the human soul either directly or indirectly reaching for God and becoming better as a result.
God’s Not Dead was the best movie I have ever seen!
Courageous, Fireproof, Facing the Giants, flywheel.
Every one of them truly inspirational and great stories. The culmination of the first five minutes of Courageous is one of the best movie moments ever filmed.
Thanks. I will check them out!
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