Posted on 03/19/2018 9:54:13 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The faith-based film "I Can Only Imagine" brought in $17.1 million at the domestic box office during its opening weekend, going far beyond early expectations and ranking third, behind "Tomb Raider" and "Black Panther."
Based on the true-story of Christian artist Bart Millard's life, the family drama opened at 1,629 locations in the United States and received an A+ CinemaScore with an audience that was 67 percent female and 80 percent over 35.
This is the distributor Roadside Attractions' highest grossing opening ever. "We felt that the film's inspiring story of hope and forgiveness made for a very compelling collaboration," Roadside's co-president, Howard Cohen, said in a statement.
The weekend estimates include $6.2 million for Friday; $5.9 million on Saturday; and a projected $4.8 million for Monday. "I Can Only Imagine" has become the top faith-based movie of 2018.
About a decade ago, MercyMe's crossover hit song, "I Can Only Imagine," sold over 2 million digital downloads and was certified almost 3x platinum. Now, Millard's life story showcased in the Erwin Brothers movie is hitting a high note.
Lee Strobel, the atheist-turned-Christian author behind the "The Case for Christ" book and movie, urged Christians to support the film. "Let's get out to theaters and support the new faith-based movie 'I Can Only Imagine,' which is stunning Hollywood with its strong opening box office performance. It's an excellent movie and we need to get behind solid Christian films if we expect more of them in the future," he wrote on Twitter.
Journalist and blogger Michael Foust noted that the film beat "A Wrinkle in Time" and "Love, Simon."
"I Can Only Imagine finishes weekend No. 1 in theater average, No. 3 overall according to estimates. Beats Disney's 'Wrinkle In Time.' Wow," Foust tweeted.
Author Julie Roys wrote, "… So glad to see a solid Christian movie perform so well!"
Cohen expects the movie to continue to "play solidly" through the Easter holiday and well into spring.
Nearly eight years ago, Millard was approached about making a movie of his story after he shared his testimony during a concert. "It's the most random, surreal thing that happened," Millard recently told The Christian Post of having his life made into a film. "We thought they were crazy, but we were like, 'OK, whatever.'"
His story illustrates that "nobody is ever too far from God's love — or too far from an eternal home in Heaven," according to the movie's summary.
Andrew Erwin, co-director and co-editor, said, "God's hand has been on this song and on this story from the beginning. We are delighted to see a story about forgiveness and redemption connect with so many people. We are humbled for the privilege of telling Bart's story."
Jon Erwin, co-director and co-screenwriter, added, "We are amazed and humbled to see the response to this story. We set out to honor Bart Millard's journey and the band's amazing, life-changing song. It's our privilege to watch this film engage in such a powerful way with the audience."
Looks good, planning to see it this week.
Yep. Me too.
Tried going to see film but all
seats sold out for all but 10:20 pm showing Sunday night!
It will be found that audiences are thirsty for this type entertainment. Either the air heads understand this, or they fail in their attempt to ‘entertain’.
BTW - Dennis Quaid, one who is known in film, little in song, shares a very adequate performance in his tune “I Can Only Imagine”.
The dark, computer generated movies are passe’. Audiences feel the need to be uplifted and walk out of the theater feeling they have seen something SPECIAL, created especially for them.
(Black Panther grossed $242m in its opening weekend, but cost $220m to make.)
If you make a movie that promotes family values, or at least doesn’t mock them, people will come in droves to see it. It always amazes me how Hollywood can’t figure that out.
Great movie. I will see it again.
(Budget $100m, grossed $33m in the first weekend, and $71m so far)
The best part of the night for me was when it was over and they started running the credits the audience got up and started clapping. I haven’t seen that kind of response in years.
Hardly. The upcoming Avengers movie will likely make over a billion in ticket sales alone. Then there's the secondary merchandise...hundreds of millions more.
Dennis Quaid sings on the soundtrack of “Great Balls Of Fire” — a duet with Jerry Lee Lewis. He’s pretty good.
I definitely won’t hear him in this “Imagine” movie. I like rock music. I like true Christian music. I hate cheesy contemporary Christian music, so will avoid the film.
>>Budget $100m, grossed $33m in the first weekend, and $71m so far<<
A film needs to gross 3 times its production cost to break even. Anything less than that is a flop. A $100 movie that pulls in $30m in its opening weekend and $70 in 2 weeks is a mega-flop.
“Black Panther” appears to be a good action adventure film wrapped in a thin, disposable PC message like “Avatar.”
No so for “Wrinkled Operha.”
They have figured it out but the leftist narrative is more important.
Not always true. There are a lot of good and decent movies that go nowhere at the box office. The most previous faith based movie released a month ago or so did no business at all.
That would be a mistake, the movie did not play that much of what you call “cheesy contemporary Christian music”. It was much more a story about the redemptive love of Christ.
I saw this movie on Friday night. Had to search around, 2 days before, for a theater (in the Southwest suburbs of Chicago) with a seat that wasn’t front row.
Movie was really good, very well acted; the storyline was focused on how Bart Willard (lead singer of MercyMe) had to get to a place where he could accept his Father’s conversion.
God is good all the time, and all the time God is good!
” I hate cheesy contemporary Christian music,....”
Whadd’ya mean???
You mean you don’t just absolutely adore “Hillsong Barney and the Spasmodic Xylophones”???
/sarc
Agree, happened when I saw it Friday night. Wasn't uproarious laughter, but nonetheless. Also, throughout the movie I could clearly hear crying/sobbing/sniffling from the moviegoers (over my own :) ).
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