One of 2014’s early trends: Christian-themed movies. Last month, producer Mark Burnett released a film spin-off of his TV miniseries, “The Bible”, with “Son of God”, which has grossed over $55 million to date (and not surprisingly won the Box Office on its opening weekend).
While “Divergent”‘s $54.6 million open took most of the box office headlines this past weekend, also making news – the independent “God’s Not Dead”. From Freestyle Releasing, this PG-rated religious drama opened in only 780 theaters but captured 4th-place, with $9.2 million, and a per screen average of nearly $12,000. That’s more than double the PSA of “Muppets Most Wanted”. Audiences took to social media after seeing the film in mostly sold-out shows, with testimonies of “tears”, “chants” and “standing ovations”.
But we’re not done yet. This weekend comes “Black Swan” director Darren Aronofsky’s eagerly-anticipated “Noah”. The Biblical-pic has already received much criticism from Catholic groups because of its apparent inaccurate interpretation of the classic story. Nonetheless, with an A-list cast of Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson and Anthony Hopkins (and the fact that it’s the biggest release of the week), “Noah” is expected to dominate the box office.
And then, just in time for Easter, the family drama “Heaven Is For Real”, is set to open Wednesday April 16. Based on a true story and best-selling book, Greg Kinnear and Kelly Reilly (“Flight”) star as the parents of a little boy, who has a near-death experience and then awakens, claiming to have gone to Heaven. Church groups will likely be buying-up tickets and selling out theaters all around the country, much as they did for “Son of God”.
So, does God=big box office? We’ll have a better idea in a few months, but so far so good. And still to come: director Ridley Scott’s latest, “Exodus”, which is due out December 12th. Holy Moses!