Why God is back in business at the box office
Christian filmmakers prove to Hollywood that religion can be commercial gold, says Tim Stanley
For years, it was assumed that God was box-office poison, that the Lord was responsible for more Hollywood flops than Johnny Depp. But in the past two years things have changed. Low-budget movies that deal positively with faith – often made by Christians for Christians – have scored big. God’s Not Dead, in which a student schools an atheist lecturer on Jesus, made $63 million (£44 million) in 2014.
Heaven Is for Real, about a near-death experience, made $101 million that same year. And when the sequel to
God’s Not Dead hit US screens earlier this month (before its UK release this week), it immediately recouped $15 million on a tiny $5 million investment. Indeed, the success of contemporary Christian movies might be down to their very cheapness. They are made and watched in rebellion against “Hollywood values”.
Once upon a time, Hollywood and religion were synonymous. The period from the Thirties to the Sixties has been defined as an era when Jewish filmmakers followed a Catholic-inspired set of moral guidelines (the Hays Code) to sell movies to a mass Protestant market. Often, the biggest movies were the godliest. Cecil B DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1956) was shot in glorious VistaVision (a forerunner to Imax) for $13 million and grossed $123 million – the second biggest success of the Fifties.
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), released towards the end of this conservative era, sank under the weight of its all-star cast. John Wayne was paid $25,000 just to appear dressed as a centurion and exclaim: “Truly he was the Son of God.” The director told him to put more “awe” into his performance. So, with a smile, he said: “Aw, truly he was the Son of God.” Thanks to the failure of
Greatest Story, the biblical epic all but disappeared as an art form.
Social conservatives insist that the dearth of religious movies post-Sixties was due to a political left-turn among Hollywood elites. But it was also due to fear. To release an explicitly religious movie in an era of battles over prayer in schools, sexual choice and abortion was, implicitly, to make a political statement – and that risked alienating half the potential audience.
Religion was avoided for much the same reason as a movie about the life of gay rights activist Harvey Milk, first mooted in 1991, wasn’t released until 2008: studio execs judged movies with messages to be a risk. Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the
Christ (2004) was offered to every studio in Hollywood. When they declined, Gibson and his company, Icon, provided the only financial backing; 20th Century Fox then pulled out of a distribution deal after the production was hit by accusations of anti-Semitism. What saved the movie was intense, ecumenical promotion through churches and the endorsement of US conservatives. The
Passion made around $600 million on a $30 million investment and was a genuine artistic achievement.
Although Gibson’s emphasis upon the physical agony of the Crucifixion was controversial – and barely watchable – it redefined the Christian movie away from the “awe shucks” cheese of the John Wayne era and towards something more contemporary, gritty and real. It also showed Christians that they could a) make successful movies independently and without studio support, and b) turn them into tools of evangelisation. God suddenly looked good for business.
Studio attempts to cash in on this trend have had mixed results. Sony’s Affirm Films – the corner of the entertainment giant that makes films aimed mainly at Christians – has generated around $350 million in ticket sales since 2007, producing movies like Miracles from Heaven –a faith-healing drama starring Jennifer Garner that scooped $18 million in its first five days. Pastors are wooed by Sony; screenings are held in churches. Its ad agencies hand out sermon notes and materials for Bible study.
By contrast, movies that take plots from the Bible, splash out on effects and try to recreate the epic buzz of yesteryear almost invariably fail.
Risen (2016), about the search for Jesus’s body by a centurion, did OK. But Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014), a Ridley Scott take on Moses, made just $60 million within the US on a $140 million budget; Noah (2014), a spin on the Ark, domestically barely recouped its $125 million. Its director, Darren Aronofsky, described it as “the least biblical biblical film ever made”, while Scott’s feature lacked heart.
The problem, it could be argued, is that neither man really believes in God. Scott in particular has long railed against religion, calling it “the biggest source of evil” in a 2012 interview.
“You don’t get atheist directors to direct movies that deal with the Bible,” Christian actor Kevin Sorbo told Fox News. “It’s ridiculous – at least get an agnostic.” And the box office returns proved his point. People who are interested in movies about the Bible, argued Sorbo, want to see movies that take the Bible seriously and the powers of God literally. After all, you wouldn’t watch a Superman movie that cast doubt upon his ability to fly.
Sorbo starred in one of the breakout movies that took the Bible very seriously indeed and proved that smaller is beautiful. God’s Not Dead (2014) is based on a fine apologist book by a Tennessee pastor and shows an undergrad turning the tables on his secularist professor. The production mirrored the Gibson business model: Pure Flix Entertainment, which describes itself as “family-friendly & wholesome”, pitched the movie before it was even released to “gate-keepers” – pastors and priests who agreed to host screenings. God’s Not Dead also picks up on one of the Christian Right’s biggest concerns, liberal influence in education. Likewise, God’s
Not Dead 2 features a teacher (Melissa Joan Hart, aka Sabrina, the Teenage Witch) taken to court for speaking openly about Jesus. Ted Cruz, the very conservative presidential candidate, liked it so much he hosted a screening in Wisconsin.
But persecution isn’t the only theme in modern Christian movies.
War Room (2015), a drama about a marriage saved by a woman locking herself in a closet and praying damn hard, grossed $73 on a $3 million investment. Interestingly, it has an African-American cast – a reminder that evangelical Christianity crosses racial boundaries in a way that liberal Hollywood rarely even attempts.
Nearly all these Christian movies have been panned by the critics. God’s
Not Dead was accused of preaching to the choir, while The Guardian asked why War Room didn’t have more to say about the crisis in black ghettos – as if that’s the only narrative of AfricanAmerican life that matters.
But it’s also undeniable that these movies often have the artistic credibility of a Kinder Egg commercial and lend themselves all too easily to parody. Saturday Night Live produced a spookily accurate take on God’s Not Dead 2 that featured a white, middle-class woman “persecuted” by a gay couple who insist she make a cake with the words “God is Gay” iced on top. “God,” she tells a courtroom, “is a boob man.” But Christian movies are one of the very few genres of film that people go to with the intention of enjoying them whether they objectively suck or not. And their flaws actually affirm that they’re not slick Hollywood products from the liberal stable. Just like Donald Trump’s gaffes prove he’s no PC shill, so bad acting in Christian movies proves that they’re not being cranked out by godless socialists. But it does beg the question: can one combine artistry, commercialism and Christianity? DeMille did, as did Mel Gibson. Pasolini certainly did with his Christian socialist epic The Gospel According to St Matthew (1964). Faith inspires beauty – we have thousands of years of art to prove it. Yet the contemporary Christian auteur of the cinema has yet to be found. Box-office receipts suggest that an audience is waiting.
Pastors are wooed by Sony, and its ad agencies hand out sermon notes and study materials