Risen is For Real

Risen opens in third place with $11.8 million along with a solid "A-" CinemaScore. The film should continue to do well through March and into early April as it scored one of the biggest faith-based openings of all-time, placing seventh behind the likes of The Passion of the Christ, Son of God and Heaven is for Real as well as the three films in the Narnia trilogy. The audience was 53% female with 70 percent 25 years of age and over.

Clint Eastwood's Son To Star in New Christian Film 'The Perfect Wave'

Scott Eastwood, the son of famed Hollywood actor and director Clint Eastwood, is set to star in a new Christian film "The Perfect Wave," set for a July 11 release in select theaters.

Director Bruce Macdonald has described the movie as "a 'love story with four pillars:' a mother's love, a young man's love for surfing, first love, and most importantly, God's love."

He added, "This film shares the amazing story of God's plan for Ian's life and reminds viewers that no matter how far you run, you can never outrun God's love."

The plot follows Ian McCormack, who grew up surfing the waters of New Zealand, and journeys looking for adventure to challenging destinations throughout Australia, Southeast Asia and Africa. During one evening swim, he is stung multiple times by the deadly box jellyfish and pronounced dead shortly after his arrival at the hospital. Ian "miraculously awakens" following a divine post-mortem encounter, however, and is transformed with a new understanding of life.

Eastwood is a rising star in Hollywood and has already played roles in critically acclaimed films such as "Gran Torino" and "Flags of Our Fathers," and has been cast as the lead of the film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks best-selling novel The Longest Ride for summer 2015.

"The Perfect Wave" also stars Rachel Hendrix ("October Baby") and Cheryl Ladd ("Charlie's Angels").

Christian and faith-based films have performed well at the box office this year, with Darren Aronofsky's "Noah" taking in over $350 million worldwide, while "God's Not Dead," "Heaven Is for Real" and the Roma Downey and Mark Burnett-produced "Son of God" all staying in the top 10 at the box office for several weeks.

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.

Lifetime Pitches 'The Red Tent'

Another bible-themed longform project is heading to the small screen. Lifetime is going into production with The Red Tent, a two-night miniseries adaptation of the best-selling novel by Anita Diamant published in 1997. The White Queen star Rebecca Ferguson, Minnie Driver (About A Boy) and Homeland alumna Morena Baccarin lead the cast of the four-hour mini. Co-starring in the project, which begins production this month in Morocco, are Game Of Thrones‘ Iain Glen and Will Tudor as well as Debra Winger.

The Red Tent tells the story of Dinah (Ferguson), the daughter of Leah and Jacob, who is only briefly referenced in the Old Testament. The miniseries begins with Dinah’s happy childhood spent inside the red tent where only the women of her tribe are allowed to gather and share the traditions and turmoil of ancient womanhood.

“The Red Tent brings premium and popular elements to a unique and timeless story,” said Lifetime EVP Rob Sharenow. “It perfectly articulates our vision for Lifetime as the destination for epic movie events.” The Red Tent mini has been in development at Lifetime since 2011. Its green light coincides with a great interest in longform TV project with biblical themes following the the blockbuster success of The Bible miniseries on Lifetime sibling History and its feature offshoot Son Of God. A Bible sequel is in the works at NBC, National Geographic Channel has mini Killing Jesus coming up, WGN America has greenlighted 10-part event series Ten Commandments, and Fox just put in development Nazareth, an event series about Jesus’ formative years.

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.”

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3 Faith-Related Films in the Top 15 At the Box Office

Paramount's prayers were answered this weekend, as Darren Aronofsky's controversial Biblical epic Noah opened in first place with a mighty $44 million.

Noah's $44 million debut ranks fourth so far this year behind 300: Rise of An Empire ($45 million). It's a significant improvement over star Russell Crowe's Robin Hood—in fact, it's the highest debut ever for Crowe in leading role. Noah has also already earned more than director Aronofsky's first four movies combined.

Months ago, word began circulating that Noah deviated significantly from the Old Testament story upon which it's based. This raised the question of whether or not Christian audiences would show up to see a "Hollywood" version of one of the most well-known stories ever.

One doesn't have to be a regular churchgoer to be aware of and have some interest in the story of Noah, though, and the action and disaster elements of the movie also helped broaden its appeal. The controversy probably didn't hurt, either: controversy creates conversation, which in turn raises awareness.

Noah's audience was split evenly between men and women, and skewed older (74 percent above 25 years of age). IMAX accounted for $6.2 million (14 percent), which suggests that moviegoers were interested in seeing this epic tale on the biggest screen possible.

Noah received a "C" CinemaScore, which is probably a result of Paramount keeping the stranger fantasy elements out of the marketing campaign. This doesn't necessarily mean the movie is going to fall off quickly: The Wolf of Wall Street is a recent example of a controversial movie that bombed with CinemaScore but held well. At this point, it's safe to say that Noah will earn at least $110 million total.

Faith-based movie God's Not Dead despite being in many fewer theaters than other top 10 movies held even with an estimated $9.1 million. Through 10 days, the surprise hit has earned $22 million.

Overseas business has been red hot for Noah and this weekend saw an estimated $33.6M taken in from 22 markets boosting the early cume to $51.1M and the worldwide tally to $95.1M. Russia was the stand-out generating the biggest opening weekend in history in that country for a non-sequel with a stunning $17.2M. More major markets open this coming week including Germany, Brazil, Spain, and the U.K. The worldwide gross will certainly surpass $300M and may even reach beyond $400M with some key European markets opening closer to Easter.

Son of God was at #15 earning another $1,070,000 and is now just shy of $58 million.

What Low-budget Hit 'God's Not Dead' Says About Christians and Hollywood

It may be “The Year of the Bible” in Hollywood, but American moviegoers are still startling the industry with their robust enthusiasm for faith-filled films targeting the tastes of the faithful.

This weekend, the small-budget “God’s Not Dead” took in more than $8.5 million Friday through Sunday – a surprising fifth-place in this weekend’s box office numbers.

Even more startling, say observers, is the fact that the movie, aimed toward Evangelical Christians, was shown in only 780 theaters – far fewer than those ahead of it, each of which were showing on more than 3,000 screens.

“While this huge opening may be a surprise to the industry, it is not so much to us,” said Mark Borde, co-president of the film’s distributor, said over the weekend. “The in-house tracking, the legitimate one million Facebook fans, the very high trending on Twitter and Fandango, among many other platforms, and the huge positive reaction from the hundreds of screenings over the many past months, gave us hope for a significant opening.”

While not a blockbuster of biblical proportions, the small film’s significant success this weekend comes at a time when Hollywood has been trying to capitalize yet again on the faith-based market, which also made a hit out of “Son of God” earlier this month. The film was condensed from the History Channel’s smash TV hit, “The Bible,” and has taken in nearly $56 million since its release Feb. 28.

But “God’s Not Dead” is a very different kind of film, many observers say. It has a deep resonance in the Evangelical subculture, which often feels mocked and demeaned by the nation’s media and entertainment elites.

“There's a negativity towards Christians in Hollywood,” said Kevin Sorbo, the actor who plays the atheistic philosophy professor. “And a negativity towards people who believe in God.”

“The silent majority is starting to get annoyed with what’s going on,” the Christian actor continued. “I think more people need to start speaking about it instead of just sitting there and taking it.... It’s happening; you’re getting attacked; you need to stand up for yourself and your beliefs.”

Indeed, the film leaps headlong into the culture wars, striking back against famous atheists, referencing the views of Stephen Hawking, Noam Chomsky, and others.

The film also has a number of subplots that reference real-life issues that chafe many Evangelicals. A journalist, described as a radical vegan, conducts ambush interviews with “Duck Dynasty” star Willie Robertson and his wife, who play themselves. It also follows the story of a young Muslim woman, who converts to Christianity and secretly listens to podcasts of the evangelist Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham. Her enraged father violently kicks her out of the house. There is also a subplot about a local pastor struggling with his faith, the vegan journalist who later discovers she has cancer, and the philosophy professor’s mistress, who becomes a Christian.

“I’m so glad a film like ‘God’s Not Dead' is bringing to the public the very real culture clash going on in American public life, especially in education,” e-mails Mitch Land, professor and dean at the School of Communication & the Arts at Regent University, an Evangelical school in Virginia Beach, Va. “We have a right and obligation to express our faith without fear of discrimination or reprisal.”

But responses to the film are as stark as red and blue.

Scott Foundas, chief film critic at Variety, called it a “ham-fisted Christian campus melodrama,” saying its depiction of the college professor was “rather like the Jews in the wartime Nazi propaganda films.”

And so far, some 2,000 ratings on the site imbd.com reveal a divide as wide as it could possibly be. On Monday morning, about half of the arm-chair critics on the site rate the film a "Citizen Kane"-level 10 out of 10 stars (46.3 percent). A full third, however, give it a rock-bottom, "Ishtar"-level 1 star out of 10 (32.8 percent). There's no shades of gray for those who see this film.

Still, others see it in a far less conflict-laden context.

“The success of 'God’s Not Dead' shows at least three things,” says Paul Levinson, media critic and professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University in New York: “Big budgets are not necessary to make popular movies, there is a significant part of the population that cherishes faith-based movies, and students like narratives about arrogant professors who get their due.”

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Non-Stop Tops Son of God at Box Office

Non-Stop and Son of God ruled the box office over Oscar weekend. The Liam Neeson action movie took first place with $28.9 million, while Son of God was an impressive runner-up.

Meanwhile, Disney Animation's Frozen became the 18th movie ever to earn over $1 billion worldwide. More importantly, it's only the fifth movie ever to hit that milestone that's not a sequel or prequel. With an opening in Japan on the way, Frozen will likely end its run in the Top 10 all-time.

Son of God opened in second place with $25.6 million. That debut is ahead of similar Christian movies like Courageous ($9.1 million), The Nativity Story ($7.8 million) and Fireproof ($6.8 million), but falls behind The Passion of the Christ, which earned over $26 million in its first day.

Son of God far exceeded box office expectations and is a result of Mark and Roma's tireless efforts to connect with a group of moviegoers, Christians, that's often neglected by Hollywood.

Son of God's audience was 62 percent female, and 82 percent were 25 years of age of older. They gave the movie an "A-" CinemaScore. Without a precedent for a movie like this (nearly all of Son of God already aired on TV via The History Channel's The Bible mini-series), it's unclear exactly how well Son of God will hold in the coming weeks.

Top Hollywood Exec Says Christians Must Produce True-to-Life Stories to Engage Entertainment Industry

A top Hollywood studio executive has called on Christians to focus on producing real, well-written, true-to-life stories to really capture the attention of the entertainment industry.

"I absolutely believe that a lot of times, when it comes to faith-based content, we portray sometimes the ideal of what we believe," DeVon Franklin, senior vice president of Production for Columbia Tristar Pictures, said during a panel on Christian engagement with the media, at the NRB International Christian Media Convention on Monday.

"We all have gone through tragedy, we all have gone through trauma, some of us are in pain right now – because life is not where we want it to be. Some of us are depressed, some of us are angry, some of us are frustrated, some of us have lost some loved ones, we all have gone through massive things that have happened to us."

Franklin, who oversaw notable films like "Sparkle," starring Whitney Houston in her last on-screen role, as well as "The Karate Kid" remake, and "The Pursuit of Happyness," and who is now helping with the upcoming film "Heaven is for Real," said Christians need to get beyond the points that divide them.

"If we aren't united, we will continue to see little blips on the radar, but fail to make a significant impact," he stressed.

Although Christians are making strides this year with a lot of content coming out in theaters, including "Son of God" this week, "Noah" in March and "Heaven is for Real" in April, there is still a lot of work to be done to really engage the entertainment industry, he said.

"It's not good enough to say 'I'm a Christian writer.' You have to be a great writer, a great director, a great actor. And I think part of what God has called me to do is try to really help because if we can make great content, [it] will break down barriers," he continued.

The Columbia Tristar VP insisted that if a film fails to represent the true journey of life, which is hard, then that movie will have a limited impact.

"So in faith-based films, we try to present an image of what we want to be, but not the reality of what really is. If a movie does not acknowledge the reality of life, even us as Christians, we won't want to see it."

The NRB panel was moderated by author, filmmaker Phil Cooke, also included Michael Harrison and Russell Moore.

Harrison called for authenticity and transcendence.

"Be authentic, and transcend the petty differences and the petty goals that separate us and create hostility. Be authentic, seek truth ahead of victory," he said.

"I think the business of broadcast industry will be best served if it's on the side of good, if it tries to help people, and talks about solutions to problems as opposed to the problems with other people. If we do that, I think ultimately we will be successful, healthy, and move in a positive direction."

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