Uplifting martial relationship drama “Fireproof” beat long odds to be last year’s top grossing indie film with $33 million in domestic box office via Samuel Goldwyn Distribution.
Marketing targeted the Christian audience that is sometimes called the faith demographic. At its widest distribution, “Fireproof” played at 905 theaters, according to Boxofficemojo.com, which is about one-third of circulation of a major-studio release.
Produced for only $500,000, the film was made by a Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, GA with mostly unknowns, although it stars Kirk Cameron. He is a Christian-market celebrity and established Hollywood actor best known for TV series “Growing Pains.”
A “Wall Street Journal” article recounts the journey of “Fireproof”– whose name plays off both a firefighter character and the idea of fireproofing a marriage in turmoil.
The people-of-faith audience is much talked about but has few hits. A conspicuous exception is Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” that was a sensation in 2004 grossing $370 million domestically. Also, football drama “Facing the Giants” was produced for just a pittance at $100,000 and then grossed an impressive $10 million in 2006.
However, many more uplifting films with strong spiritual dimensions have stumbled. Even Disney decided to pull out of co-financing a third big-budget “Narnia” film with pro-religious themes from Walden Media, despite good results from the first two installments of the family-film fantasy franchise.
The “WSJ” article by Dale Buss says that there appears to be a “Christian fatigue” in the faithful niche after mainstream studio films attempted to recruit them for questionable movies, perhaps most ridiculously by “The Di Vinci Code.” That drama actually undermines basic church teachings but tried to convert Christians by inviting them to “join the dialog” in marketing-driven blogs.
The “WSJ” article quotes a major studio executive explaining the success of “Fireproof”: “It is authentic because it is coming from the community; it’s not just geared to the community,” said Robert Rubin, executive vice president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, which plans to release “Fireproof” on DVD late this month.
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