The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| Hollywood plays to the faithful, finds hit with God Posted: 20 Apr 2014 08:43 PM PDT The movie "Heaven is for Real," which depicts the story of a young boy who claims to have visited heaven during a near death experience, is the fourth faith-based film this year to stir movie-going audiences with impressive box office numbers. Made with a budget of $12 million (RM39.9 million), the film, which stars Greg Kinnear, collected $21.5 million over the Easter weekend in US and Canadian theatres, finishing third at the box office behind bigger budget films "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" from Walt Disney and "Rio 2" from Fox. Two other Christian-based films also cracked the top 10. "Noah," from Viacom's Paramount Pictures, stars Russell Crowe as the biblical figure and was ninth. It has generated more than $93 million at domestic theatres since opening in March, according to the site Box Office Mojo. "God's Not Dead," about a religious freshman college student who debates his professor over the existence of God, was tenth and has totalled $48 million over five weeks, despite playing in only about half the numbers of theatres of Hollywood's larger films. Fox's "Son of God," an adaptation of producer Mark Burnett's 10-hour TV miniseries "The Bible," generated more than $59 million in domestic ticket sales after opening earlier this year. "This audience has long felt left out by Hollywood and it certainly looks like this isn't the case anymore," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior market analyst of box office tracking firm Rentrak, in an email. "The numbers will encourage studios to make more of these types of films." Studios have been searching for more faith-based films since Mel Gibson's 2004 "The Passion of the Christ," which tallied $611.9 million in worldwide ticket sales and was made on a modest $30 million budget, according to Box Office Mojo. In the last five years alone, Hollywood has made 26 movies that the site classifies as "Christian" films, including three based on "The Chronicles of Narnia" fantasy novels by C.S. Lewis that literary academics say adopted several Christian themes. "There's a core audience and they're very interested in seeing films with a faith-based centre," said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribute for Sony Pictures Entertainment, whose TriStar Pictures unit distributed "Heaven is for Real." "The one main ingredient most have is that they are somewhat inspirational in nature," said Bruer. "People feel like they get something out of it." Not all get great reviews. "Heaven is for Real" got a positive "fresh" rating from only 31 of 59 reviewers, according to the site Rotten Tomatoes. But some of the films can have a built-in marketing vehicle, according to David A. R. White, whose company Pure Flix produced the film "God's Not Dead." White told Entertainment Weekly that Pure Flix waged an aggressive grass-roots campaign that included screening the film for 8,000 pastors prior to its opening. "We have a lot of relationships to the gatekeepers who can rally their people to go to the movie theatre," White told the magazine. He added of the American audience, "160 million plus people call themselves Christians. They go to church once a month, at least. That's a lot of people." – Reuters, April 21, 2014. |
| ‘Captain America’ stays strong atop US box office Posted: 20 Apr 2014 08:01 PM PDT The latest big-screen blockbuster starring Chris Evans as the iconic Marvel superhero took in $26.6 million (RM86.2 million) over the weekend, figures from box office tracker Exhibitor Relations said. All told, the film has earned more than $201 million in North America since its debut earlier in the month, when it had the biggest April opening of all time. This week's performance meant "Captain America" maintained its lead against another sequel, animated children's movie "Rio 2," a follow-up to the 2011 hit about a family of blue macaw parrots. The movie, which features the voices of Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway in the lead roles, took in $22.5 million in its second weekend. New release "Heaven is for Real," starring Greg Kinnear as the father of a four-year-old boy who wakes up from emergency surgery with a story about going to heaven and back. It raked in $21.5 million for a close third place. Another debut, "Transcendence," starring Johnny Depp as a scientist who escapes death when his brain is uploaded into a huge computer, came in fourth place. It took in $11.2 million at the box office. Paranormal comedy "A Haunted House 2" jumped up the charts to earn fifth place, with $9.1 million after a month in theatres. The sequel to a 2013 film, it stars Marlon Wayans as a man plagued by ghosts and demons. Kevin Costner's latest big-screen appearance – sports drama "Draft Day" – moved into sixth place. The film, which sees Costner playing an American football team's general manager on the day of the NFL draft, picked up $5.9 million. "Divergent," the dystopian tale of a young woman in a futuristic society, based on the popular young adult novel by the same name, reeled in $5.8 million for seventh place. Sinking from third to eighth spot was horror film "Oculus," about an antique mirror possessed with evil spirits. It garnered $5.2 million. Rounding out the top ten, biblical epic "Noah," starring Russell Crowe, earned $5.0 million for ninth place and the religiously themed "God's Not Dead," which tells the story of a college freshman who debates his atheist philosophy professor, dropped to tenth with $4.8 million. – AFP, April 21, 2014. |
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