Posted on 08/04/2014 12:34:44 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Big news from the box office: some people released some Christian-themed movies that weren’t completely terrible. The terribleness of Christian movies is, of course, an article of faith among film critics, who reserve for them their most damning barbs (“doesn’t even meet the standards of decent propaganda”; “doesn’t belong in a theatre”).
On Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, they garner basement-level scores rivalled only by torture porn and holocaust-exploitation flicks. But not this year, which has seen box-office success for studio-backed movies such as Son of God ($67m since its debut in late February), Darren Aronofsky’s Noah ($359m), God’s Not Dead ($60m), Heaven is for Real ($91m), and, soon Ridley Scott’s retelling of the story of Moses, Exodus. In October, we can look forward to Left Behind, a remake of a 2002 end-of-days conspiracy thriller starring Nicolas Cage. Also in the offing: a star-studded cast in the long-awaited prequel to The Passion of the Christ (Mary, Mother of Christ) and a Cain and Abel film set to star Will Smith. Some have christened this “year of the Bible movie”.
“Having not just one do so well is a big deal, but having so many – Heaven is for Real, God’s Not Dead and Son of God – all come along and do well in the space of this year is unprecedented,” says Shawn Robbins, an analyst at boxoffice.com. “No doubt about it, Hollywood has been caught napping.” He attributes a big part of this to social media. “Thirty years ago you had network television, trying to appeal to everyone. Now you can reach a niche audience with much greater ease. They have these grassroots marketing campaigns for faith-based movies that start with churchgoers who are looking for something they’re not getting from the movie theatre.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Calling Russell Crowe’s “Noah” a religious movie is bizarre.
It took them a few years to realize that good faith based movies can be good for their bottom line.
The Passion of the Christ was one of the biggest box office hits of all time. But they didn’t follow up with more such movies. Probably because Hollywood is so beholden to liberalism, they couldn’t imagine making such movies in the first place.
I thought the movie Noah was stupid.
Calling “Noah” successful is also patently false. It had an okay opening, no legs, and ultimately lost money at the box office.
They lost me at that fake prehistoric-looking little animal that was killed within the first five minutes. It was obvious they were just going to make $#!% up.
I totally agree. I watched it on DVD this weekend and I thought it was terrible. As a fictional movie it may pass muster, but as a biblical movie, no way.
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