Christian movies are making inroads into peoples viewing. For years there has been this almost microscopic industry, commonly known as Christian Entertainment . It’s a diverse group (denominationally) and producers of this religious based content have been around for a long timer bur are now making inroads into the mainstream of film production.

In the not too distant past, and to some extent, currently, Christian films were made for that smaller audience: The Sunday-go-to-Church, Evangelicals. Believers. They had small budgets and opened “nationwide” to under 1,000 theaters (500 was a good opening).. Some even premiered in churches. These movies aimed at a specific audience, ang rarely had to do any marketing or advertising. Decades ag, there were King of Kings, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Ten Commandments, among other mainstream productions. The Cold War was good for the movie business in all ways.

two films have made some headlines and even received some coverage by the media. The first, The Jesus Revolution is a docu-drama about what did become a revolution of sort of the 1970’s and shows how that affected the Chtistian music industry to this day. The move cost around $15 million to make and since it’s release, last February and has made $53 million. Not bad. Infact, great because it made money for it’s investors. A lot of money.

More recently, in fact just a week ago, The Sound of Freedom was released, to huge audiences in it’s paltry 2600 screen release. This is a film about human trafficking, based on a true story of one ex-CBP agent. This movie also cost $15 million since it’s opened, it’s made $45 million. In a single week.

Maybe producers of at least Christian themed content are learning something: Try appealing to a wider audience and, stop shooting Super-8 (cheap) movies. Fifteen million isn’t much for a Hollywood sponsored film, but it is a huge amount for an independent.

Some years ago, browsing through “The Hollywood Reporter” (don’t ask!) I learned that in order for aa movie to make any money, it has to bring in at least twice the production cost. For instance, the supposed blockbuster of the summer, the new Indiana Jones movie? Has yet to make back, worldwide, what it cost to produce. I’m sure it eventually will, but so far, it would be rated a bomb in theaters($292 mil cost, $252 mil worldwide…only $125 mil in the U.S.). We’ll see if there’s a lesson learned. I doubt it because even secular Hollywood cannot seem to discover what audiences want to see, with the excepyion of movies based on comic books. Even then, they end uo running the genre ino thr ground because they lack imagination.

Bring on the independents.