Hollywood loses again
From WorldNetDaily...
It was made by a church on a donated budget of $100,000 with volunteer actors, but instead of a low-budget castoff, "Facing the Giants" held its own against Hollywood's big boys in its opening weekend, grossing $1.4 million on only 441 screens.
Officials say the production, by Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga., was released by Samuel Goldwyn Films and ranked No. 12 for all films over its first weekend, even though other films had up to eight times as many screens. Its per-screen average of $3,149 was fourth among the top 10 grossing weekend films....
Competing with Hollywood typicals such as "Jackass" and "School for Scoundrels," the movie had sellout crowds in Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, West Palm Beach and Orange County, officials said.
Barely any promotion and on its opening week it grosses15 times it production budget. To put that into perspective, the #1 movie of the weekend, Open Season, grossed a little over $25 million with a production budget of $85 million. Most movies made in Hollywood have a promotional budget as large if not larger than the production budget, so realistically Open Season grossed roughly 30% of its production budget (compared to 150% for Facing the Giants). Half that if the promotion budget is included. I believe I saw one commercial for Facing the Giants, so their promotion budget would also have been pretty small.
Oh and the virulently anti-Christian smear film Jesus Camp? While no production budget is given, it was promoted heavily, very heavily, suggesting a promotion budget of at least 7 figures. It's been out two weeks now and has managed a pathetic $180,573 ($17,659 on the opening weekend). No wonder they aren't releasing their production cost; the box office grosses are embarrassing enough.
As more and more Christian investors find that clean, wholesome movies will bring a hefty return, (The Passion, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc.) as well as a solid ministry effort, we should be seeing more and more movies produced outside the slimy hands of Hollywood execs that still foolishly believe dirty movies make more money.
Posted by Danny Carlton at October 4, 2006 12:09 PM