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.

The Passion of the Christ Still Setting Records: Excels with Premiere on UP

The ratings grew dramatically for UP with the commercial television premiere of The Passion of the Christ.   Mel Gibson’s graphic tale of Jesus’ final hours set a host of Nielsen marks for UP on Palm Sunday.  

The film was UP’s top telecast ever with an average audience of 1.1 million viewers on April 13, according to Nielsen data. The rating ranked eighth and the audience seventh in the time period among ad-supported cable   UP ranked 10th among women 25 to 54 and adults 25 to 54.    

UP, benefiting from the film and a number of other Bible-tied films, ascended to its strongest day ever in households, persons 18 to 49 and adults 25 to 54 on April 13 and the network's strongest week ever in household delivery.  

“We knew that The Passion of the Christ would resonate with our audience and attract new viewers to UP as well," said Charley Humbard, president and CEO, UP. "The film is the centerpiece of our extensive Easter programming and truly epitomizes our holiday theme: ‘Easter Lives Here’. The Thursday night special encore presentation provides the perfect movie to watch before Good Friday.”

Controversy Often Makes Movies, Even Christian Ones, Win at Box Office, Says Producer

For movies with Christian themes that previously were considered un-buzzworthy inside the Hollywood film industry, it is controversy that often makes them box office successes, says an award-winning film and music producer.

Speaking to a workshop at the San Diego Christian Film Festival, Mark Joseph told part of the story of how "Facing the Giants" became a box office success.

The film about an underdog high school football team, and issues of faith in God, was made for $100,000. Volunteers from Sherwood Baptist Church were cast in supporting roles. Joseph helped market the film, but said one of the keys to the movie's $11 million in sales was letting a reporter know that there was a controversy over the film's initial PG-13 rating.

"The MPAA gave two reasons for the PG-13 rating: excessive religious content and the other was that it elevated one religion over another," said Joseph, who also helped to market "The Passion of the Christ" and "Chronicles of Narnia." "As a marketing person this was like God's gift to the film."
He said that he explored the idea of having a reporter break the story by first talking to an editor at the Drudge Report.

"I said I think I have a story for you, the MPAA thinks God is worthy of a rating," he explained. Joseph said he knew that others would find it as astonishing as he did that issues of faith and religion would be lumped together with such things as sex, drugs, and violence when establishing a movie rating. The editor told him to find a reporter to write the story.

"Instantly, it became this mega media sensation. The story being that Hollywood is so out of touch with normal people that they thought this film needed a PG rating," he said.

The MPAA suddenly realized they had made a mistake and tried to cover-up by saying their objections had been misinterpreted. Joseph said the movie gained even more attention when Congress called for a hearing to investigate the MPAA.

"That was a message to the country to go watch this movie that's so 'forbidden,'" he said. "The movie made $11 million at the box office."

Organizers of the three-day film festival in San Diego say they hope to strengthen the community of Christian filmmakers interested in bringing about a positive change in the types of movies coming out of Hollywood. Filmgoers are craving for movies with a good message and faith-based values.

"The market is starving for it, not hungry, starving for good quality films," said Chad Stewart, who is on the board of directors for the festival and the managing director of a production company based in Del Mar, Calif.

Joseph said he's been a part of at least six traditionalist movies that were labeled "surprise successes" by Hollywood standards.

"We've discovered an audience that Hollywood doesn't think exists in America," he said. "Narnia and Passion are movies that on paper don't make sense to anybody in Hollywood. Nobody that I know of thought that the Passion of the Christ was going to be successful. Same goes for the Chronicles of Narnia. The Chronicles of Narnia was really an unknown property in Hollywood. A lot of executive didn't know who C.S. Lewis was and so it wasn't the slam dunk that you might think it was today."
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" has grossed more than $739 million worldwide.