God's Not Dead and Heaven Is For Real Quietly Surpass $50 Million at Box Office

After just two weeks, Heaven is For Real has already earned $52 million domestically at the box office while God's Not Dead has earned an equal amount in 6 weeks.  Heaven Is For Real was the 3rd most popular film this past week, God's Not Dead was #11 and Noah, approaching $100 million was #14.

'Heaven Is for Real' Crushes Johnny Depp's Latest Bomb 'Transcendence'

Faith-based film Heaven Is for Real soared at the Easter weekend box office, earning a stellar $21.5 million from 2,417 theaters to bury big-budget Transcendence, which opened to a dismal $11.5 million from 3,455 locations.

Transcendence marks the third big-budget bomb in a row for Johnny Depp after The Lone Ranger and Dark Shadows.

Captain America, staying at No. 1 for its third consecutive weekend, grossed $26.6 million from 3,825 locations to cross the $200 million mark domestically and hit $586.6 million worldwide in another major victory for Marvel Studios and Disney.

Fox's animated family film Rio 2 grossed $22.5 million from 3,975 locations in its second weekend for a domestic total of $75.4 million.

Heaven Is for Real, placing No. 3, is the latest Christian film to exceed expectations. Produced by influential pastor T. D. Jakes, director Randall Wallace and Hollywood veteran Joe Roth, Heaven Is for Real stars Greg Kinnear and earned an A CinemaScore. The drama did its biggest business in the country's Bible Belt, but appealed to mainstream audiences as well.

Easter weekend provided further evidence that 2014 is indeed the year of the Bible movies. Heaven Is for Real was one of three such titles populating the top 10 chart. Noah placed No. 9 with $5 million for a domestic cume of $93.2 million, while God's Not Dead came in No. 10 with $4.8 million, pushing its total to $48.2 million.

Heading into the weekend, no one expected the $12 million Heaven Is for Real to beat Transcendence, which cost a hefty $100 million to produce. Transcendence suffered from scathing reviews and a C+ CinemaScore.

Easter weekend saw two other new nationwide offerings -- A Haunted House 2 and Disney documentary Bears.  Haunted House 2 placed No. 5 with $9.1 million from 2,310 theaters, half of the $18 million opening secured by the first film. Bears placed No. 11 with a less-than-expected $4.7 million from 1,720 theaters, the lowest opening of any Disneynature title.

Over the weekend, Frozen became the No. 6 title of all time worldwide with $1.129 billion in earnings, passing up The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($1.114 billion) and Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($1.123 billion). It has also passed up Ice Age 4 ($716 million) to become the top-grossing animated film at the international box office with $729.3 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

'Heaven Is For Real' Goes to Big Screen; Backed by 'Braveheart' Writer, Starring Greg Kinnear and Thomas Haden Church

Production has begun for the screen adaptation of best-selling book Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back, which chronicles the near death experience that reportedly brought a 3-year-old boy face-to-face with Jesus Christ.

Filming started last week in Winnipeg, Manitoba, under Director Randall Wallace, who wrote the Academy Award-winning film "Braveheart" and directed "We Were Soldiers," "Secretariat," and "The Man in the Iron Mask." T.D. Jakes, pastor at the Potter's House in Dallas, and producer of the movie "Jumping the Broom," adds his weight to the film as a producer.

In 2003, 3-year-old Colton Burpo nearly died after his appendix burst. While in surgery, he reportedly went to heaven and saw Jesus. "It wasn't until four months after we got out of the hospital that we finally listened to our son," Todd explained, in a 2011 interview that has received over 13 million hits on Youtube.

"Jesus and some angels came and flew me up to heaven," Colton explained. He identified Jesus through the "markers" on his hands and feet. "I was in the throne room of God to start with, so I got to see what that looked like."

"God used people or things that I liked to calm me down," Colton said. While reportedly in heaven, Colton met Todd's grandfather, Pop, who was Todd's "most significant male role model" but died when Todd was six years old. "He's really nice," the revived boy told his father, "you used to play with him as a kid and work with him on the farm and shoot stuff with him." Speechless, Todd verified the story.

Colton also knew that he had two sisters, one of whom died in a miscarriage. "You had a baby die in your tummy," he told his mother Sonja. She asked, "How do you know you have two sisters?" He responded, "Well, she told me." Colton told his mother that his sister is "just waiting for you guys to come to heaven."

When Jesus reportedly told Colton he had to go back, the boy didn't want to leave. "Even though I didn't want to go back, he said that he was answering my dad's prayer," the boy explained.

The book, published in November 2010, has sold more than 8 million copies and has been translated into more than 30 languages. It has also spent more than two years on the New York Times paperback nonfiction best-seller list.

The film, set to be released around Easter 2014 by TriStar Pictures, will feature first-time actor Connor Corum as Colton, along with Thomas Haden Church ("Sideways") as family friend Jay Olson. Greg Kinnear ("Little Miss Sunshine," "You've Got Mail," Oscar nominated for "As Good as it Gets") will play the boy's father, Todd, while Kelly Reilly (Mary Watson in "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows") will play his mother, Sonja. Along with Jakes, another producer is Joe Roth ("Oz the Great and Powerful," "Alice in Wonderland").

Actor Greg Kinnear to Star in 'Heaven Is for Real' Movie

Actor Greg Kinnear is reportedly in the process of signing on to play a character in the upcoming movie adaptation of the New York Times best-selling book Heaven Is For Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back.

The book, which was released in late 2010, is based on the true story of a 4-year-old boy living in Nebraska who claims to have visited heaven while undergoing surgery for an emergency operation.

The young boy reportedly died temporarily during the surgery, and after awaking from his anesthesia, he claimed to have met his miscarried sister in heaven, as well as his great grandfather, divulging in family details which would have been impossible for him to have known.

The book is written by the boy's father, Todd Burpo, pastor of Crossroads Wesleyan church in Imperial, Neb., along with collaborative writer Lynn Vincent, who previously collaborated on Sarah Palin's book Going Rogue.

Although negotiation talks are still in the works, Kinnear may play the role of the young boy's father, Burpo, in the upcoming movie, which will be a Sony Pictures production, according to an exclusive by The Hollywood Reporter.

The movie will be produced by Joe Roth, who recently released "Oz the Great and Powerful," and Bishop T.D. Jakes of The Potter's House, along with director Randall Wallace, who previously directed "Braveheart" and "Secretariat."

"We are thrilled to have Randall Wallace at the helm of the film," Joel Kneedler, a representative for the film, said in a previous interview.

"He brings a wealth of experience as a writer and director and we are fortunate to have someone of his caliber overseeing the film," Kneedler added.

The release date for the film is set to be determined, although according to The Hollywood Reporter, Kinnear plans to make time for shooting the film while also starring in his new Fox pilot "Rake."