‘Son of God’ and other religious movies at the box office
The release of the Christian film “Son of God” this weekend kicks off an unusually large slate of wide-release religious movies for 2014. Soon to come are “Noah” and “Exodus,” followed by the Christian-themed “Heaven Is for Real.” Talk about a flood.
“Son of God” comes a decade after the controversial hit “The Passion of the Christ,” which generated more than $370 million in revenue at the domestic box office.
The new film, culled from footage from the successful History channel “Bible” miniseries, is not expected to do as well, though it could open with up to $20 million in ticket sales in its first weekend, according to people who have seen pre-release audience surveys.
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The gallery above gives a sampling of significant religious movies and their box office numbers of the past (using data from Rentrak and Box Office Mojo), as well as some of the upcoming efforts that have helped brand 2014 “The Year of the Biblical Movie.”
Note that this list is not comprehensive and does not include movies such as the “Chronicles of Narnia” series, which have strong Christian overtones but are primarily fantasy.
For older movies, we have used grosses adjusted for estimated 2014 ticket prices to give meaningful tallies for “Ten Commandments” and “Ben-Hur.”
ALSO:
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PHOTOS: The Billion Dollar Box Office Club
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Twitter: @rfaughnder
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