IS 2014 THE YEAR OF THE CHRISTIAN MOVIE OR NOT? - II

Back in April I wrote "Is 2014 The Year of the Christian Movie or Not?"   It's now October and the faith based movies keep coming.  I mean good movies.  Not the ones we have been use to in the past with the bad acting, poor cinematography, very bad special effects, and slip shod marketing.  Still we Christians went to see them when ever we could find them because they weren't shown in very many theaters.  We had to go to a church somewhere or a big hall rented by a church or ministry who got a old reel projector, VHS or BETA tape, or in more recent times a DVD or Blu-ray then we would watch a pretty bad, in most cases, movie.   Boy have things changed.  Today's faith based movies, and I'm talking about those produced by 

My Definition

Before I get into sharing the evidence  indicating that this may, in fact be the year of the Christian movie.  Maybe a better description is faith based movies, not biblical movies, or even Christian movies.   Many movies depart a great deal from the original manuscript or book, in the case of faith based or Christian movies, the book is the bible.  In many cases there may be very little similarity between the movie and the book.  Many times there is a disclaimer that says something like this movie was based on such and such and in some cases the disclaimer says loosely based.   A great example of loosely based was the movie Noah and the bible account of his life and the flood, which in my opinion was so loosely based it was almost non-existent.  Anyway let's look at 2014 and faith based movies.  I'm not trying to list every faith movie release for 2014 but enough of a sample to answer the question is 2014 the year of the Christian movie or not? 

2014 Movie Releases

At the time of this blog several movies have had box office success; “Son of God”, “Noah”, “God’s Not Dead”, "Heaven is for Real", "Mom's Night Out", and "Persecuted"

<==Find a theater==>

“Left Behind”, a movie about a commercial airline pilot flying his plane when the rapture starts opens October 3rd.  "The Good Lie" also releases this week competing with "Left Behind.  It stars Reese Witherspoon and is about how she helps four young "Lost Boy" from Sudan adjust to life in the U. S.

In December Fox will release  “Exodus: Gods and Kings”.  Most of the movies star actors and actresses that you know, and they have big production budgets.  A number of studios are planning to release several movies over the next few years.  A great website to visit to learn about upcoming Christian movies is Christian Film Database.  It is a great resource.

Some of these movies have gone to DVD release.  Click on the image to see if a DVD has been released and where you can buy it.

To find a theater showing "Left Behind", "The Good Lie", or "Persecuted" click on the link under the image or the Let's go to the movies link at the bottom of the post.

<==Find a theater==>

<==Find a theater==>

Why?

Why all this Hollywood interest now in Christian or faith based?  First of all  these new movies have been box office successes.  In an interview that film producer, Mark Joseph, gave to FOX411, he said “Hollywood is realizing the interests of the people who live in this country, who have been disengaged from movies and are now willing to give Hollywood a chance. There’s a new generation of Hollywood executives coming up who aren’t as ideological and political as their older counterparts. They’re about the bottom line and aren't as knee-jerk against religious material as previous generations.”  In that same interview he also said “Because Christians didn’t tell their stories in film for 75 years, there are lots of great stories that never got told,” he said. “On the mainstream side on the other hand you’re seeing lots of sequels and remakes – the story supply is running dry.”

In the past some of the screenplays, in bible based and Christian movies world, have been pretty poor.  That is changing but Christian movie makers and those producing faith based movies need to continue to improve so that these movies continue to be theatrical successes.

Yes 2014 is the year of the Christian movie. Let’s go to the movies!  . If you don't want to go to a theater click on one of the images above for the movies that have been released to DVD.  If you don't want to by a DVD, or go to the theater there is another way to see faith based movies in the comfort of your home.  CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO ON DEMAND!!