The top five "faith-based" films of 2023
The top five "faith-based" films of 2023
From Jesus Revolution to His Only Son and The Shift: a quick round-up of some of the things I've written about the year's most successful religious movies.
I wasn’t planning to do any sort of end-of-the-year wrap-up, but a couple weeks ago I was contacted by a journalist asking if I knew what the most popular “faith-based” films of the year had been, and whether I had any comments on them.
I wasn’t sure I could say which films religious audiences had liked the most, as that’s a purely subjective thing and as far as I know there’s no religious equivalent to CinemaScore or anything like that. But I have been tracking the genre’s performance at the box office all year, so I was happy to use that as a starting point.
The funny thing is, the outlet that contacted me was AARP, the “nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering Americans 50 and older to choose how they live as they age”.
And the journalist who contacted me was Tim Appelo, whose name I recognized because he was one of the staff writers at Entertainment Weekly when I got my first subscription to that magazine back in 1990. (I wasn’t quite a charter subscriber, but the first issue I got was #3, the one with The Hunt for Red October on the cover.)
I was a teenager when I started reading Appelo’s stuff. And now, he was quoting me in an article that gave my age after mentioning my name. And yes, I apparently fit into AARP’s target demographic now. (Or I would, if I were American.)
Anyway. It was very easy to pinpoint what some of the most successful “faith-based” films of the year had been—and, as it happens, the top two films are both period pieces, set primarily in the ’60s and ’70s, with baby-boomer protagonists, so I figured those films might have a certain generational appeal to the AARP readership.
Again, you can read the article, with my comments quoted therein, here.
And since I’ve written about all five films to one degree or another here at Substack—I even interviewed the directors of two of them—I thought I’d round up some of the things I’ve written about them. Enjoy. (All box-office figures are domestic.)
1. Jesus Revolution — $52.1 million
‘A new Bible-movie trilogy is in the works from the makers of I Can Only Imagine and the studio behind The Shack’ (March 27, 2019)
‘From Jesus Christ to Jesus freak’ (September 2, 2022)
‘A new featurette gives us our first look at Jesus Revolution’ (October 8, 2022)
‘Hippies-for-Christ flick Jesus Revolution gets a trailer’ (October 22, 2022)
‘The Chosen’s successors: a new Left Behind movie and the Jesus Revolution?’ (November 22, 2022)
‘A few brief thoughts about Jesus Revolution’ (February 24, 2023)
‘Box office: Jesus Revolution is a “faith-based” hit’ (February 26, 2023)
2. The Blind — $17.3 million
‘Box office: New releases Paw, Saw, Creator, Blind dominate the top five’ (October 2, 2023)
‘Exclusive: The Blind director Andrew Hyatt on his Duck Dynasty origin story and what it has in common with his Bible movies’ (November 19, 2023)
3. His Only Son — $12.4 million
‘The binding of Isaac, coming to theatres next month!’ (February 11, 2023)
‘Angel Studios launches new trailer, new theatrical division for His Only Son’ (March 16, 2023)
‘Interview: David Helling on directing His Only Son’ (March 27, 2023)
‘A few brief thoughts about His Only Son’ (March 31, 2023)
‘Box office: His Only Son cracks the top 5, while Jesus Revolution slips out of the top 10’ (April 2, 2023)
‘Angel Studios raising funds for Jacob, the sequel to His Only Son’ (April 3, 2023)
‘His Only Son gets a new, Sarah-focused trailer going into its second weekend’ (April 6, 2023)
‘His Only Son investors get their money back, and more’ (May 4, 2023)
4. After Death — $11.5 million
‘Box office: Five Nights at Freddy’s gets the fans out of their houses for Halloween’ (October 30, 2023)
Other box-office reports: Weekend 2
5. The Shift — $11.3 million (and counting?)
‘Three — maybe four — Bible-themed projects look for crowd-funding’ (October 24, 2021)
‘Livestream news: The Chosen, Testament, The Shift, and more’ (July 6, 2022)
‘Sci-fi riff on the story of Job gets more actors’ (February 4, 2023)
‘The Shift moves its release date up to December’ (September 12, 2023)
‘The Shift tickets are now on sale’ (October 12, 2023)
‘Exclusive: Watch a clip from The Shift, the first sci-fi film from Angel Studios’ (December 1, 2023)
‘Box office: Studio movies sink, niche movies rise in a surprisingly successful post-Thanksgiving weekend’ (December 4, 2023)
‘Review: The Shift (dir. Brock Heasley, 2023)’ (December 8, 2023)
Incidentally, if you’re wondering why The Chosen didn’t make the list, it’s because the show’s two theatrical releases this year—the Season 3 Finale in February and the Christmas special two weeks ago—both had very short runs and grossed around $5 million apiece. So, even combined, they wouldn’t have cracked the top five.
Here’s an up-to-date version of the “faith-based films of 2023” chart that I’ve included with some of my weekly box-office reports:
And no, Sound of Freedom is not a “faith-based” film. Red-state, sure. Faith-adjacent, maybe. But faith-based, no, not really. And the director would agree with me.