Posted on 12/06/2006 7:45:53 PM PST by AngieGal
Hollywood will not make anymore religious films unless Christians go and see The Nativity Story in large numbers
That’s the view of its producer, Marty Bowen
By Dan Wooding Founder of ASSIST Ministries Poster for The Nativity Story
HOLLYWOOD, CA (ANS) -- Marty Bowen, producer of The Nativity Story which came in fourth in the weekend box office in the United States, is concerned that Hollywood will not make anymore religious films unless Christians now go and see the movie in large numbers.
Despite many good reviews, New Line’s The Nativity Story, the story of Christ’s birth, only took in $8 million in the United States from 3,183 locations to come in fourth, while, for the third week in a row, the No. 1 and No. 2 films remain Warners' Happy Feet and Sony's Casino Royale, respectively. Buena Vista's Déjà Vu also remained unchanged from its third place finish last week, netting an additional $11 million.
In an interview with ANS, Marty Bowen said he was disappointed with the fact that the movie only came in fourth.
“I thought it was incredibly disheartening for a variety of different reasons, not the least of which is you hear this common lament from moviegoers that America feels like Hollywood has lost touch with what they want to see. People feel like there is too much violence in movies and too much disrespect towards the family.
“Now finally a Hollywood studio has stepped up and put their money where their mouth is and has committed to making and releasing a movie, not on a couple of screens but rather on a very big very large fashion – more than three-thousand screens around the country -- and giving the audience what they say they want and yet that sense of urgency in that audience isn’t there to go and see it.
“What is disappointing is you hear people talk about how we can make movies better but if you don’t go see them when they are presented to you, Hollywood’s never going to do it again. And that’s what is frustrating to me because I changed careers to make movies that would inspire people and if there’s not a business for it, and I can’t find a studio to make the movies that I want to make, then that’s disappointing.”
Bowen, who was formerly an agent, went on to say, “Hollywood hasn’t made a Biblical film like this for decades. The Passion Of The Christ was one man’s journey and he [Mel Gibson] did a phenomenal job.
“I think what happens in a movie like this is that people say, ‘I’ll get to see the movie when I get around to it.’ What they don’t understand is that this is a business. These theater owners have a lot of demand for their screens and if a movie does not perform well on December 1st, despite the fact that it is the reason for this holiday season -- it’s the Christmas story -- it might not make it to December 25th, and that angers me.
“It just really saddens me that a movie that’s about the birth of Jesus may not be in theaters when that celebration of that birth takes place. And that’s really disappointing.
“People don’t seem to realize that when a studio commits tens of millions of dollars to make a movie they expect an audience to go see it; and if they don’t see it soon they’ll never be around to see it later.
When asked if he had a message to American Christians, he replied, “There needs to be a sense that, if what you want is to see films that are about faith and family and you want to light a fire under your neighbors to be inspired to live the life that you feel like is fulfilling to you, then you need to support films that have a similar message. If you don’t then you need to be ok with the idea that next year at the box office there’s going to be a movie about some guy cutting people’s throats around a Christmas tree.
“That’s the nature of the beast. It’s a sad commentary to me that when we considered the possibility of naming this movie Silent Night we couldn’t do that because that sounded like a horror film. That’s awful. So that’s why I put it [The Nativity Story] out there. You can’t wait to see this movie because you’re giving the wrong message to Hollywood.”
Bowen concluded by saying, “It’s not an effective argument, in my opinion, to wait around until Hollywood makes the decision for themselves and then, what they make is something you find morally reprehensible, and then you protest. To me that’s negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement has always been more effective. If a movie speaks to what you want movies to be about than you need to support it or you need to shut up.”
So, what are you waiting for? Go and see The Nativity Story before it is too late!
Note: I’d like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing this interview.
I'm going to see the movie but not because they threaten me. I have no particular hope or fear about their future movie making plans.
Same here. Who wants to spend that much money to sit in a theatre when I can wait a while and pay the same ammount to watch the movie anytime I want in my own home?
What a ridiculous threat... does that mean that they won't
make any more insipid crap movies as well since those failed to draw?
Oh...and let me say that I've been really enjoying the classic movies lately. Who needs the new garbage.
I've heard of movie producers carrying out all sorts of publicity stunts to draw attention to their films and boost the box office, but this is the first time that I can recall that a producer has tried threatening the public to try and intimidate them into going.
It must be a new marketing strategy.
Blackmail? Huh? No, actually.
Sorry to hear that there are only scummy theaters in your area; you're SO right about the difference THAT makes. I don't go to the trashy ones, anymore, either. I pay the extra to go to the good ones; the misfits generally don't want to pay more than they have to, so there are fewer of them in the nicer places. Also, since everyone else has paid more to be there, if one or two get mouthy, there's almost always a strong front of opposition forcefully encouraging them to shut up or leave. Never had to call in Management in any of the nice places.
"It must be a new marketing strategy."
Or it's a flat statement of reality.
Sounds like a threat to me. We will go see it but we never go the first and usually not the second weekend anyway. And you're right about the rude people in the theaters. I just still like the experience of the really big screen.
Apparently it's only Christian movies that are risky ventures. And they could only fail because there is no audience for them, not because the idolators in Hollywood don't know the first thing about making a Christian movie.
People go to the movies to be entertained and not to make a political or religious statement.
I don't want to rain on this movie, which seems to have been well intended, but I was put off by the review of the movie from a Catholic perspective. It sounds as if the director and the writer were too much influenced by modernist bible interpreters, two of whose names I recognized as being particularly iffy.
The problem is chiefly the portrayal of the Virgin Mary, but it sounded as if the whole thing might have been somewhat damaged by your typical "scientific Bible criticism" approach. Still a good story, I'm sure, but I don't want to see another modernized version of this story.
I have not seen this particular movie, but almost without exception, the book is better than the movie.
One particular exception....Slaughterhouse Five was better on film than in print. The book was incomprehensible to me, and the movie explained it all, I think.
Amen!
I especially, most emphatically, don't need Hollywood to validate my beliefs. I mean, honestly, folks. This is pathetic.
Oh, the pain, the pain.
And a paraphrase, at that, with so much dramatic dialog that doesn't appear in any of the reports. I'm as much a fan of a good biblical hollywood epic as the next guy, but does anyone who believes the reports think the God of Abraham, widely accepted as the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, is worried about his poll ratings...his legacy?
I don't think so.
How 'bout 'God won't make anymore Hollywoods if they start believing the weight of historic evidence for the resurrection of His Son...'
Noble sentiments (speaking to the article, not to you, this time,) but what are we to do? Force ourselves to go see this flick, so that more like it are potentially made so we can force ourselves to go see them too? Don't we have enough religious entertainment inside our churches, what with electric guitars and mediocre if sincere religious folk singing? Let's have a Constitutional separation of Church and Entertainment, I propose. Me old fashioned this way.
Religious-themed movies will do well if they are good movies.
Just like every other genre of movies.
Making veiled threats is never a good marketing strategy.
"People go to the movies to be entertained and not to make a political or religious statement."
Not always.
Ex. "Fairenheit 9/11"
They need to take in account all the churches showing the film.
That’s the view of its producer, Marty Bowen
What an ignorant thing to say.
I think plenty of people will see this movie and many other religious movies. I suspect someone is trying to get the numbers up by threatening that there will be no more.
I agree with you.
Documentaries are not typical movies. Though the Michael Moore movie was not a typical documentary -- it went for entertainment value, pandering to a certain demographic.
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