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.

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.

Captain America Writers Talk Next Narnia Movie

Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely were the screenwriters on the first three Narnia movies. They were replaced during pre-production on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader which lead to their work on the Marvel cinematic universe writing Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Thor: The Dark World. They've already been signed to write Captain America 3, and may also work on the Agent Carter miniseries that could come to TV in the mid-season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

They spoke with SuperheroHype, who asked about The Silver Chair, even though Markus and McFeely are not writing the screenplay.

SHH: Before you guys go, I want to quickly ask about “Chronicles of Narnia,” because I’m a huge fan of the books. Do you think there’s a future for the movies as a franchise at this point and are you still involved at all?
Markus: They’re trying to do a fourth one.
McFeely: Yeah, they’re trying to do “The Silver Chair” right now but I don’t think there’s a studio.
McFeely: No, I think they switched producers, but “Silver Chair” I think is a good choice because it’s a pretty coherent adventure that’s not terribly tied to what comes before or after so you can make a really solid adventure movie and not get too bound up inside this other thing. It’s three acts, it’s literally a beginning, middle and end and it feels like a whole story. “[Prince] Caspian” was harder because it takes place a thousand years later and “[The Voyage of the] Dawn Treader” was really hard. We were kicked off that one. The problem with “Dawn Treader” is that it’s a lovely book with no stakes. It’s a philosophical exploration that needed to be turned into a heroic quest, but it basically just wasn't.
McFeely: We always thought that if we did “The Silver Chair,” we’ll crush that one, but everything worked out for a reason. If we stayed with that, we wouldn’t be here.

David Magee is currently writing the script for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair.

David Magee To Write the Fourth Narnia Film Silver Chair

The C.S. Lewis Company and The Mark Gordon Company announced today that two time Academy Award nominee David Magee ("Finding Neverland" and "Life of Pi") has signed on to write "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair," the fourth book published in C.S. Lewis’ famed fantasy series.

Douglas Gresham, stepson of C.S. Lewis stated, “I have a great deal of respect for Mark Gordon’s work and am confident that together we can bring the beauty and magical delight that Narnia engenders in the hearts of those who read the books to the screen in ‘The Silver Chair.’ I am very much looking forward to diving once more into Narnia, this time with Mark Gordon and his team.”

David Magee stated, “I have always loved The Chronicles of Narnia and I endlessly imagined myself finding my own passage into Narnia someday. All these years later, I'm getting to fulfill that wish just a little bit by writing the film adaptation of 'The Silver Chair' and could not be more excited about it.”

Mark Gordon previously shared, “Like many readers, both young and old, I am a huge fan of C.S. Lewis’s beautiful and allegorical world of Narnia. These fantasy stories inspire real-world passion among millions of devoted fans around the world. As we prepare to bring the next book to life, we are humbled and excited to contribute to the outstanding legacy of Narnia.”

The first three Narnia films combined have grossed over $1.6 billion at the worldwide box office.

A classic series of seven novels that have sold over 100 million copies worldwide, C.S. Lewis’ "The Chronicles of Narnia" began with the publication of "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" in 1950.

Brad Pitt to Star as Pontius Pilate?

CinemaBlend is reporting that Brad Pitt is considering taking up the title role of Pontius Pilate in a new big budget period piece production of the same name coming from Warner Bros. studios.

The movie does not yet have a release date and is still in pre-production, after Warner Bros. acquired the script by screenwriter Vera Blasi.

"This script follows the evolution of Lucius Pontius Pilate from the sensitive son of a Roman Knight into a ferocious soldier whose warrior exploits make him a general and puts him on a political track under the Roman Emperor Tiberius.  Promised a military governorship in Egypt, Pilate is instead assigned by Tiberius to become the prefect of Judea, at a time when Jerusalem was a cauldron of religious tensions between various factions of the Jewish faith. Pilate veers from the political fast track into the express lane to hell and historical infamy," Deadline.com reports.

The critical moment of the story is when Pilate is asked to decide the fate of Jesus Christ, presented as a 33-year old rabbi accused by religious elders of claiming to be the King of the Jews. Other biblical figures expected to feature in the movie include John the Baptist, Salome and Mary Magdalene, although those roles have not been cast yet either.

The one big name attached to the movie so far is producer Mark Johnson, who has worked on award-winning TV show "Breaking Bad" and produced other major films like "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Trader," "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," and "The Notebook."

As for the portrayal of Pontius Pilate, Deadline describes him as "one of history's most vilified figures," but Blasi's screenplay suggests a more conflicted character.

"The screenplay, which Blasi claims to have researched for more than a decade, imagines the Roman prefect as an unfortunate figure caught amid antagonistic religious factions who is forced to make the fateful decision after finding himself in desperate need of popular goodwill," the Guardian reports.

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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.

Box Office Update: Faith Titles Find Success

While the carnal "Hangover 2" grabs headlines and two other films ("POTC: On Stranger Tides," "Fast Five") surpass $200 million this summer, it's important to note that several faith-based films have garnered some success.

Most notably, "Soul Surfer" has defied expectations and is in the Top 30 for the year grossing $42 million. "Jumping the Broom" is at #38 with $37 million.

"Dawn Treader" remains in the Top 15 of DVD sales grossing over $24 million.

Two other titles are in the Top 100 - "The Grace Card" has made $2.4 million and "There Be Dragons" $1.1 million