The faith-based movie audience for Hollywood films gets star treatment in two articles with slightly different takes on the increasingly-important moviegoers influenced by their religious beliefs.
Deadline.comís Michael Cieply notes that box office was soft for faith films in 2016. “The faith audience is clearly taking a break from the movies,” Cieply wrote. “Actually, 2016 started strong among the faithful, as they provided a secret boost to several among the last round of Best Picture Oscar contenders. ‘The Revenant,’ ‘Room’ and eventual winner ‘Spotlight’ were all quietly backed by a faith consultant, WIT PR, which promoted the films with sermon notes and world-of-mouth screenings among viewers who value inspirational messages more than action or awesome effects.”
Meanwhile, the New York Times detects that movie distributors are courting faith-based audiences with broader films, which often don’t have overt religious overtones. Writes NYT’s Brooks Barnes: “In doing so, they have tapped churches, military groups, right-leaning bloggers and, particularly, a fraternity of marketing specialists who cut their teeth on overtly religious movies but now put their influence behind mainstream works like ‘Frozen,’ ‘The Conjuring,’ ‘Sully’ and ‘Hidden Figures.’ “
The faith audiences specialist firm of WIT PR — led by the Rev. Marshall Mitchell and Corby Pons — get special attention in both articles.
A blow to faith films was the big-budget, $100 million flop in 2016 of Biblical epic “Ben-Hur.”
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