The third-biggest movie in America this weekend was I Can Only Imagine

The third-biggest movie in America this weekend was I Can Only Imagine, a movie that shares a title with a Christian song that first charted 17 years ago. It’s a retelling of the story of MercyMe's Bart Millard (played by newcomer J. Michael Finley) and his journey to forgive his abusive, alcoholic father (Dennis Quaid), as well as his father’s movement toward faith before his death.

Directed by brothers Andrew and Jon Erwin, whose previous movies like Mom’s Night Out, Woodlawn, and October Baby were modest box office successes, I Can Only Imagine startled many by hauling in over $17 million, making more than $10,000 per screen and beating A Wrinkle in Time in its second weekend. That means it’s the seventh-biggest faith-based film opening ever (the fourth if the Narnia films don’t count), and the biggest since Heaven Is For Real in 2014.

There are a few reasons that I Can Only Imagine did well, and the biggest is the song that inspired the movie. It tells the story behind the most successful  contemporary faith song that was ubiquitous on Christian radio — and eventually crossed over to mainstream radio.

There might be two other faith-based movies that might be a breakout hit this month.

Vox argues that movies for the faith-based audience can be broken into three main categories. One is the inspirational category, more uplifting than specifically evangelistic, to which I Can Only Imagine belongs, along with high-performing movies like Heaven Is For Real, War Room, and The Shack.

Another is stories based on the Bible, with movies like The Passion of the Christ and Son of God. And the third is movies that are essentially political in nature, like the God’s Not Dead movies.

On the Friday before Palm Sunday, Paul, Apostle of Christ will open in theaters and start competing with I Can Only Imagine for the faith-based audience. The film stars Jim Caviezel, who is best known among the faith-based audience for playing Jesus in The Passion of the Christ (and reportedly will reprise his role in an upcoming sequel).

And on Good Friday, God’s Not Dead: A Light in the Darkness, the third installment in the God’s Not Dead series, opens in theaters. In this one, a pastor discovers that his church has burned down and that the university on which it was housed is using this as a reason to move the church off campus.

The God’s Not Dead series is hugely popular — and, like I Can Only Imagine, takes its title from a song, this time from the Christian rock band the Newsboys — and will pose stiff competition to the other two films.

Was This The Last Weekend A Faith Based Movie Will Be in the Top 10?

A 10th place finish by Heaven Is for Real over the four-day weekend kept Memorial Day weekend from being the first without a faith-based movie in the top 10 since February 21-23, the week before Son of God debuted in theaters.

Based on the bestselling book, Heaven Is for Real earned $2 million in its sixth week open. With a budget of $12 million, the film has thus far generated nearly $86 million.

X-Men: Days of Future Past won the extended weekend with $91.4 million.

Moms' Night Out which was heavily marketed to family audiences, fell from 10th to 13th over the weekend. The film made roughly $700,000, bringing its total haul to $8.7 million. The comedy, starring Patricia Heaton, cost $5 million to make.

March release God's Not Dead dropped out of the top 30 this week and Box Office Mojo contained no figures for the movie's financial performance. Posts on the movie' Facebook page informed viewers that Memorial Day weekend would likely be their last chance to catch the movie in theaters.

The movie is the seventh highest grossing Christian film and brought in nearly $60 million over its nine week run. The low-budget film, which cost $2 million to make, trails Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, three Chronicles of Narnia films, and 2014 hits Heaven Is for Real and Son of God.

Heaven Is for Real is the final well-known faith-based film in theaters until Exodus: Gods and Kings premieres in the U.S. on December 14. Christian Bale will star as Moses, Aaron Paul as Joshua, Joel Edgerton as Moses' step-brother and Pharaoh Ramses, Signourney Weaver as Tuya, Moses' Egyptian mother, and John Turturro as Seti, Moses' Egyptian foster father.

A film about the life of Mary is also scheduled for later this year.

Sean Astin Notes Christians Are Innovating Movie Marketing

Sean Astin stars in the just released Moms Night Out and  laughs at the fact that he might now be labeled as a Christian filmmaker despite having been in many more mainstream movies.

“What's funny is the idea that I might become a paragon of Christian filmmaking because I've done two Christian films,” he said. “I'm just not going to not make films because Christians are making them if they’re good films.”

“Hollywood is antagonistic to Christian films because of forces that are hard to describe, but Christians have made things difficult for themselves by the way they approach the outside community,” he continued.

Astin said people need to forget about those “who grab the microphones and yell the loudest.” The fact is, people are hungry for family-friendly, faith-based entertainment and studios are finally starting to listen.

“The Christian ground game is presently revolutionizing marketing in filmmaking,” he explained. “It's not a subtle thing, and it's a great thing and it's not owned by the Christians. They are just getting there first because they’re tired of not being able to get their product into a wide marketplace.”

No matter your faith, Astin hopes his new movie will allow the audience to stop, breathe and reflect for a minute.

Moms Night Out In Top 10 at Box Office

Enough moms came out so that Moms Night Out placed in seventh place.  Opening at 1,044 theaters, Moms' Night Out earned an estimated $4.2 million this weekend. While it's a fairly modest release, the success of faith-based movies this year coupled with the strong Mother's Day release date makes this number a very slight disappointment.

The problem, of course, was that Moms' Night Out was lacking any obvious faith-affirming content. In comparison, recent hits God's Not Dead and Heaven is for Real have it right there in the title.

Moms' Night Out looks like a massive success, though, when compared to Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return. The animated movie opened in 2,575 locations, where it earned a paltry $3.71 million. That's one of the lowest debuts ever for a movie at over 2,500 theaters.

In fourth place, Heaven is for Real was off a light 19 percent to $7 million. Through four weekends, the faith-based hit has brought in an impressive $75.2 million.

Faith-Based Movies: In Hollywood To Stay?

Deadline has a nice overview of the recent faith-movie trend:

After the strong staying power of this weekend’s God’s Not Dead and the stronger than expected opening of Noah following on the heels of the surprise opening of Son of God earlier this year, is there any doubt anymore Hollywood that if you build it, they will come? That’s three for three … but wait, actually there’s more. Back in 2008, the Kirk Cameron-starring Fireproof took a lot of people by surprise. On a $500,000 budget raised by Sherwood Baptist church, the faith-based picture ended up grossing $33.4M when it was released. They did it again in 2011, when on a $2M budget, Courageous opened to $9.1M and went onto make $34.5M. Before that, in 2004, the Mel Gibson-directed The Passion of the Christ opened to $83.8M domestically and went on to gross $611M worldwide.

“I think that is a smart assumption,” Megan Colligan, president of domestic marketing and distribution for Paramount told Deadline. 

The next heavenly story up will be Heaven Is For Real, based on the 2010 book written by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent. The book debuted at No. 3 on the New York Times best-sellers list and then rose to No. 1. Sony purchased rights to the book in 2011 and Randall Wallace (Braveheart) is directing. The movie stars Greg Kinnear (As Good as It Gets). Unaided awareness for the film is pretty low at the moment two weeks out, but with the right marketing campaign, Sony could pull off the fourth faith-based film to open decently.

Affirm Films, which typically gears its features toward evangelical Christians, has the family comedy Moms’ Night Out starring Patricia Heaton, Sean Astin and Trace Adkins opening on May 9, Mother's Day Weekend.  Affirm made $43.9 million stateside with the $18 million-budgeted Soul Surfer in April 2011. On October 3, the Nicolas Cage action film Left Behind about a commercial airline pilot steering his plane in the aftermath of the rapture will be released.  Then on December 12, Fox releases Exodus, which is more along the lines of the big-budget Noah. The Biblical tale in Exodus is that of Moses as played by Christian Bale who leads the Israelites out of Egypt to a safe haven. Will it be epic? It’s a Ridley Scott movie.

So will there be more of these Biblical/faith-based films, and can they be sustainable past their first opening weekends and, more importantly, churn a profit for the filmmakers and distributors? “It’s a good question and I don’t know the answer to that,” said Fox’s Chris Aronson. “As far as sustainability and profitability, it’s hard to say because of the differences in the budgets. There are plenty of examples of faith-based films that have been smartly marketing and targeted to a faith-based audiences that have been successful. It proves that there is an appetite for it, but I think that credibility is an issue as well.” He notes that filmmakers and distribs must be involved in catering toward faith-based audiences. “You can’t pull the wool over the faith-based audiences eyes because they will see it and reject it. And I think (Son of God producers) Mark Burnett and Roma Downey had ultimate credibility because they went directly to the opinion makers in the faith-based community and showed that they had the goods.”

Usually, the way these pictures perform is that they open strong and then fall off. That was the case for Son of God which dropped about 60% in its second weekend, but despite that, this re-edited film from History's The Bible series footage, has grossed $57.9M as of this weekend. 

God’s Not Dead had the third-highest per screen with around $7,714 per screen in its second weekend; third only behind Noah ($12,335) and Budapest Hotel ($9,007). Its per screen average is also above the second weekend of Lionsgate’s franchise in the making Divergent ($6,732). It only fell 1% in its second weekend out. Easter is around the corner. So will it do well through Easter or was this second weekend a fluke? Was it helped by the power of Duck Dynasty (with stars Willie and Korie Robertson) who made an appearance and helped to promote the film?

The lesson to studio heads and marketers is — whether its Noah, God’s Not Dead, Son Of God, Fireproof or Courageous – there is an audience for Biblical films. Perhaps, it takes a thoughtful approach to pull it off. Son of God played well across the country, but Roma and Mark had and took the time to meet with church leaders and listen to them and then incorporate marketing and distribution strategies to open the film to the particular audience.

Tapping into the faith-based audience means speaking directly to these infrequent moviegoers in a way that is credible on a budget that is reasonable. They have proven to be bankable. So, say, a major star anchors one of these — instead of a Kevin Sorbo or Kirk Cameron — and makes a financially-responsible deal for all parties involved, it could prove a new audience for that star and also a nice sum for all profit participants. Also at the same time, these pictures give exhibitors the kind of lower-end budgeted movies that are often more profitable than the Hollywood tentpoles.

These individuals may be infrequent moviegoers for mainstream movies, but they are frequent moviegoers for Biblical and faith-based films. And as Fortune 500 companies have found in developing new products for a new market, there are pitfalls, yes, but if and when you hit it’s a goldmine of loyal customers. And for a star, it could be their biggest openings to date, which was the case for Russell Crowe this weekend in Noah. Combining its marketing to faith-based and to mainstream action audiences, Paramount pulled it off. And Crowe and the studio can thank, in no small part, Emma Watson and her team for her strong social media footprint (and savvy on how to utilize it).

Aronson sums it up nicely: “What this shows is that there is an appetite for these type of movies and that there is a particular segment of the population that is being terribly under-served and if you give them the product they want to see, they will come.”

read full Deadline article

Patricia Heaton Speaks on Media’s Portrayal of ‘Christians As Bad Guys

Actress Patricia Heaton isn’t your average Hollywood celebrity. An outspoken Christian and the star of ABC’s “The Middle” and the long-running “Everybody Loves Raymond,” she’s been open about her faith — and told TheBlaze that, contrary to popular belief, she isn’t alone in Tinseltown.

Heaton, who plays a pastor’s wife in the upcoming comedy “Moms’ Night Out,” said that there are actually a lot of Christians and “seekers” in Hollywood.

“Most creative people have a deep spiritual well that they’re drawing from even if they don’t know it,” Heaton said. “The arts are being creative — I mean, God is a creator, He creates constantly, and when you’re in a creative place like Hollywood, there’s a lot of opportunity to talk and share and find common ground.”

Christian celebrities who keep quiet about their faith might do so because of the perceptions and stereotypes about what it means to be a Bible believer, Heaton said — a paradigm Christians can sometimes bring upon themselves.

The “cheap” way that Christians are often portrayed in media, she believes, creates fear among some in Hollywood when it comes to opening up about their faith.

“You know, my older sister is a Dominican nun, and nuns are always portrayed as weird, sexually repressed, old maids who are bitter. Listen, I went to Catholic school, there are a few of those, but the Dominican sisters that I know are lovely, lovely ladies,” she said. “So I think there has been this idea out there and the media kind of runs with it, portrays Christians as bad guys.”

As for living out one’s faith, Heaton, a self-described Catholic who attends a variety of Christian churches, said she believes actions truly matter.

“If you’re on a set everyday with 12 people, they get to know you and see how you treat number one on the call sheet and number 49 on the call sheet and how you act,” Heaton said. “Whether you act entitled or whether you are kind and generous and compassionate, and also, do you show up on time? Do you know your lines? Are you professional? All of that stuff speaks volumes.”

Heaton isn’t sure if she’s paid a professional price for her Christianity, because those who haven’t hired her would never admit if her faith was the reason why.

But considering her Emmy Award-winning performance as Debra Barone on “Everybody Loves Raymond” and her current role as Frankie Heck on “The Middle” — now in its fifth season — Heaton doesn’t seem to be too bogged down when it comes to success.

Heaton told TheBlaze that she is delighted that “The Middle,” a show revered for being safe to watch for all ages, has become a program that is “smart and edgy — and warm and appreciative” of life in the Midwest.

Plus, she said, the show offers a realistic look at how many American families actually live.

In “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “The Middle,” for instance, Heaton pointed out that the families attend church — but that the themes don’t hit viewers over the head with the message.

“It’s unusual that really two shows I have been on have had that in common, ‘Raymond’ and ‘The Middle’ — both families were churchgoers, and they never made a big deal about it,” she said. “It was just part of the fabric of their lives which is true for many many families in the United States, but it is never portrayed.”

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‘Lord of the Rings’ Actor Opens Up About His Christian Faith

Actor Sean Astin has had a long-standing career in Hollywood. From starring as Mikey in “The Goonies” to his role as Samwise Gamgee in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, he has entertained and inspired audiences for decades. In a new interview with Beliefnet, Astin recently discussed his career, his faith and a Christian movie he recently filmed called “Mom’s Night Out.”

It may come as a surprise to some that Astin, who has said in the past that he doesn't wear his faith on his sleeve, is religious. But a close look at his career and his public comments corroborate this very fact. In his discussion with Beliefnet, Astin described his faith journey in detail and didn't hesitate to call himself a faithful Christian.

He detailed his fascinating faith journey — one that encapsulated experiences with Buddhism, Judaism, Catholicism, agnosticism and Protestantism (they all touched him in some way). Today, Astin is a Lutheran, having been officially baptized along with his wife at a church in Indiana. But growing up, his stepfather, actor John Astin, was a Buddhist and his birth father was Jewish.

Beyond that, his mother, actress Patty Duke, is a Catholic — at least nominally. When Kennedy asked about this dynamic, the entertainer was candid:

“Well, it depends on when you ask her and who you ask. I think today she would probably consider herself a Catholic. She’s had a really kind of tortured relationship [with the Church]. I [remember] when my sister died. There’s this group of nuns that lived in a convent nearby. She insisted that they be there. So, you know, when you talk about self identifying versus how people practice versus the culture versus all these kinds of things I think my mom is a feels very comfortable with her Catholicism.”

In a previous interview, Astin was asked about his favorite prayer. He cited Ron Dugger who had once set up a meeting between the actor and then-Sen. John Kerry at a time during which Astin was politically active.

“There’s a guy named Rob Dugger who was a very senior member of the Democratic National Committee. [A]fter I’d met with John Kerry, [Rob had] arranged a meeting and this [was] at the height of my trying to grapple with what I was able to accomplish–and not–on a political level,” Astin told Huang. “We just had this conversation, and I asked him that question. [H]e said every morning he wakes up and he says a prayer, ‘Allow me to be an instrument of Your will.’”

Astin said the prayer really resonated with him and that he has uttered it “a few thousand times” since first hearing it.

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Sarah Drew, Sean Astin, Patricia Heaton and Alex Kendrick Star in Moms' Night Out

Principal photography has wrapped on Moms' Night Out, a film that celebrates real family life—where everything can go wrong and still turn out all right.

“We wanted to make a film that the whole family could enjoy,” said Kevin Downes, the film's producer who also acts in the movie.

In the film, all Allyson and her friends want is a peaceful, grown-up evening of dinner and conversation . . . a long-needed moms’ night out. But in order to enjoy high heels, adult conversation and food not served in a bag, they need their husbands to watch the kids for a few hours—what could go wrong?

“I feel like everything in the script happened at my home last week,” said Jon Erwin, who co-wrote Moms' Night Out with Andrea Nasfell and co-directed with his brother Andrew. “It’s a light-hearted look at the joys and challenges moms and dads face today, giving all the time kids need while still finding time for each other.”

Coming to theaters in 2014, Moms' Night Out chronicles one night out gone awry, as three harried moms, their husbands, a sister-in-law with a misplaced baby, a tattoo parlor owner, a motorcycle gang and one bewildered cabbie learn to embrace the beautiful mess called parenting.

“We grew up watching great family comedies,” said Andrew Erwin. “We felt it was time to bring the genre of clean family comedy back to the big screen, and we brought a powerful comedic cast with us to do it.”

Moms' Night Out also loops in a little wholesome passion between a wife and her husband, played by Grey’s Anatomy’s Sarah Drew as Allyson and Sean Astin as Sean.

"I love that the film is not just a comedy but also a love story between Allyson and Sean,” Drew said.

Moms' Night Out spotlights the unfulfilled expectations and serial self-doubts many moms feel . . . then reassures us that the key is raising kids in a loving home.

“I’m excited to be a part of the group of women in a comedy that is reality for families everywhere,” said Everybody Loves Raymond and The Middle star, two-time Emmy winner and mom of four Patricia Heaton from the MNO set. “I’ve had so many people come up to me over the years and say, ‘Your show got us through a very difficult time in our family and raised our spirits.’ I think sometimes in a family the only way to diffuse a tense situation is to make a joke or mock yourself or the situation. At some point you just have to laugh about it. That’s what we hope will happen with Moms' Night Out.”

Heaton is an executive producer on the film along with her husband, David Hunt, who joins her onscreen as well, playing a local cabbie caught up in the fun.

Moms' Night Out features Sarah Drew (Grey’s Anatomy), Sean Astin (The Lord of the Rings), Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond, The Middle), Alex Kendrick (Courageous), Robert Amaya (Courageous), Anjelah Johnson (MADtv) and platinum-selling country recording artist Trace Adkins (The Lincoln Lawyer) is “Bones,” a philosophical tattoo artist with a checkered past and a load of wisdom.

This second feature film from Andrew and Jon Erwin follows on the buzz created by their 2012 hit October Baby that surprised the film industry with a No. 8 box office debut against big-budget competition and drew page 1-A coverage in The New York Times.