Box office: His Only Son cracks the top 5, while Jesus Revolution slips out of the top 10
Box office: His Only Son cracks the top 5, while Jesus Revolution slips out of the top 10
Angel Studios' brand new theatrical division is off to a solid start.
Note: This post was updated April 6 to reflect the fact that Jesus Revolution got bumped from the top ten by another “faith-based” release that got added to the list some time after the weekend. The original story remains as it was, but see the updates that follow it.
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A low-budget Bible film from a brand new distributor was one of the top five—maybe even three—movies at the North American box office this week.
His Only Son, which tells the story of Abraham and the near-sacrifice of Isaac, is currently on track to gross at least $5 million this weekend, though sources disagree as to whether it will go any higher than that—and, if so, by how much:
Box Office Mojo says the film is looking at $5.5 million, which would land it in third place, behind Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves ($38.5 million in its first week) and John Wick: Chapter 4 ($28.2 million in its second week).
Deadline says the film is looking at $5.3 million, which would basically tie it for third place with Scream VI (which is now in its fourth week).
The Hollywood Reporter says the film “came in just under $5.3 million”.
Variety says the film is looking at $5 million, period, which would basically tie it for fourth place with Creed III (which is now in its fifth week).
The final figures will be released sometime tomorrow morning.
In the meantime, one thing seems clear, at least: His Only Son will have the third-best per-screen average of any film in wide release this weekend.
The film is currently playing in 1,920 theatres—a lot fewer than any other film in the top six, all of which are playing in at least 2,827 theatres—and it is estimated the film will earn between $2,600 and $2,900 per screen, behind only Dungeons & Dragons ($9,987 per screen) and John Wick ($7,317 per screen).
No other film in wide release is expected to earn more than $1,950 per screen this week.
The success of His Only Son is notable for several reasons:
It’s the first major theatrical release from Angel Studios, a streaming service that launched its own theatrical division last month after having a lot of success with special Fathom Events releases of select episodes from The Chosen.
His Only Son’s first-weekend gross is bigger than the first-weekend grosses for two of The Chosen’s three theatrical releases.
Weekend-to-weekend comparisons are skewed somewhat by the fact that each of The Chosen’s releases came out on a different day of the week, but only The Chosen Season 3: Episodes 1 & 2—which opened on a Friday, like His Only Son—had a bigger first weekend ($8.8 million in November 2022).
His Only Son’s success, relative to The Chosen’s, is all the more remarkable when you consider that:
it has no major names in front of or behind the camera;
it has no pre-existing fanbase;
it was produced completely independently (Angel Studios did not come on-board as distributor until last November, long after the film was completed);
and it was produced for less than a quarter million dollars (whereas The Chosen’s third season reportedly had a budget of over $2 million per episode, which means that each of the show’s last two theatrical releases—both of which were two-episode packages—could have cost over $4 million).
Angel Studios released His Only Son after raising $1.2 million to cover the film’s distribution costs. Add to that the very low production cost, and getting His Only Son made and distributed evidently cost about $1.5 million altogether.
Because theatres keep about half of the box-office revenue, conventional wisdom says a film needs to earn double its cost to make a profit, which would be about $3 million in His Only Son’s case—so if His Only Son has already grossed over $5 million, there is a very good chance it is already in the black, even before DVD releases and other future revenue streams are taken into account.
His Only Son is one of two English-language films that feature Nicolas Mouawad as a biblical character: he plays Abraham in this film, and he played King Solomon in Three Thousand Years of Longing. That film grossed only $8.3 million in North America last year (in addition to $12 million overseas), and it is quite possible that His Only Son could pass it by next week, domestically.
Two extra points are worth noting here:
Angel Studios has announced a ‘Pay It Forward’ program that would allow fans of the film to pay for movie tickets that other people could use to see the movie in theatres for free. Angel Studios has used a similar program to cover its streaming costs for a few years now; watching their shows is free, but viewers are encouraged to send in money so that other people can watch their shows for free too. This is the first time Angel has done anything like that in theatres.
There has been a lot of talk in the industry lately about the relationship between movie theatres and streaming services. Legacy studios that branched into streaming have begun to steer some of their made-for-streaming content back to the big screen (e.g. Paramount’s Smile, Warner Brothers’ House Party), and some of the big streaming services have recently committed themselves to big theatrical releases as well (e.g. Amazon’s Air, Apple TV+’s Killers of the Flower Moon). Between The Chosen and His Only Son, it would seem that Angel Studios—which also started out as a straight-to-streaming service—has earned the right to be included in those conversations. And consider this: all four of Angel’s theatrical releases—including the three Fathom-organized Chosen releases—have opened in at least 1,700 theatres, which represents a much bigger commitment to the theatrical experience than anything Netflix has done (their biggest film, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, played for only one week in only 696 theatres).
Meanwhile, in other box-office news, Jesus Revolution—a Lionsgate film that stars The Chosen’s Jonathan Roumie as a hippie preacher from the late 1960s—landed in the top ten for a sixth straight week. The film is currently on track to gross $1 million this weekend, which would raise its total to $50.9 million since opening in late February.
A few quick data points about that:
This weekend’s gross represents a drop of 49.2% from the film’s fifth weekend, which is on the steeper side for a “faith-based” film in its sixth week.
Jesus Revolution is now one of only six “faith-based” films that have been in the top ten for six straight weeks, the others being 2004’s The Passion of the Christ, 2011’s Soul Surfer, 2014’s Heaven Is for Real, 2015’s War Room, and 2021’s American Underdog. One other film—2016’s Risen—bounced back into the top ten in its sixth week after dropping to #11 in its fifth week.
Jesus Revolution is now the ninth “faith-based” film to gross over $50 million in North America, though that is before adjusting for inflation.
Jesus Revolution came out the same day as Cocaine Bear, back in February, and this weekend marks the first time it has grossed more than that film.
One more observation: this week marks one of the somewhat rare occasions when two “faith-based” films have been in the top ten at the same time—a phenomenon that goes back only nine years or so. These are the previous instances that I am aware of:
May 2014 — Heaven Is for Real overlapped with God’s Not Dead for one week, and then it overlapped with Moms’ Night Out for two weeks.
September 2015 — War Room and 90 Minutes in Heaven.
February and March 2016 — Risen, The Young Messiah, Miracles from Heaven, and God’s Not Dead 2 took turns overlapping with each other over six weeks.
March and April 2018 — I Can Only Imagine and Paul, Apostle of Christ.
January and February 2022 — American Underdog and Redeeming Love were in the top ten simultaneously for three weeks, at a time when most of the major studios were avoiding theatrical releases altogether because of the “Omicron wave”.
And now, for some updated charts.
First, here is how His Only Son currently ranks among Bible films of the past 25 years (this list includes films like The Shack and Three Thousand Years of Longing that don’t necessarily tell biblical stories but do feature biblical characters in significant roles, as well as modernized versions of biblical stories like The Song and Redeeming Love):
Second, among “faith-based” films, Jesus Revolution—which had the 6th-biggest first-weekend gross, the 9th-biggest second-weekend gross, the 10th-biggest third-weekend and fourth-weekend grosses, and the 9th-biggest fifth-weekend gross—will now have the 13th-biggest sixth-weekend gross, if estimates hold.
The film has also now earned $50.9 million in total since opening, which is enough to make it the 9th-highest-grossing “faith-based” film to date.
Jesus Revolution is still not reporting any foreign grosses, but even without them, it is now the 10th-highest-grossing “faith-based” film worldwide (though I still have my doubts about how complete some of the foreign numbers are, especially with the films that were produced and distributed by some of the more independent entities):
And that, I think, about covers it. More later, perhaps.
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April 3 update: The final numbers are in, and His Only Son landed at the high end of the estimates, with $5.5 million and a third-place finish, while Jesus Revolution also ended up just a hair above the estimates, with $1.04 million for the weekend:
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April 6 update: Wait a minute, it looks like Jesus Revolution wasn’t in the top ten after all! Box Office Mojo has updated its chart to show that a Fathom Events release called The Journey: A Music Special from Andrea Bocelli—which played for just one day last weekend, i.e. Palm Sunday—was #10 for the weekend with $1.2 million:
But I guess we can still say there were two “faith-based” movies in the top ten last week, because The Journey—which is staying in theatres until Easter Sunday—was co-produced by the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and it features Christian musicians like Michael W. Smith, Tauren Wells, and TAYA (of Hillsong United fame).
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Past posts on His Only Son and movies about Abraham:
‘God’s Stories #3: The Promise (Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar)’ (July 22, 2022)
‘Solomon and the Djinn: two movies’ (August 27, 2022)
‘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)
‘Abraham and the binding of Isaac at the movies’ (March 29, 2023)
‘A few brief thoughts about His Only Son’ (March 31, 2023)
Past posts on the Erwin brothers and Jesus Revolution:
‘Review: Moms’ Night Out (dir. Jon & Andrew Erwin, 2014)’ (May 21, 2014)
‘I Can Only Imagine and Steve McQueen: American Icon co-director Jon Erwin on rooting for the underdog and following your dreams’ (March 16, 2018)
‘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)
‘Box office: Jesus Revolution earns another $8.65 million in its second week’ (March 5, 2023)
‘Box office: Jesus Revolution has a decent hold in its third week’ (March 12, 2023)
‘Box office: Jesus Revolution crosses $45 million in its fourth week’ (March 19, 2023)
‘Box office: Jesus Revolution hangs in there in its fifth week’ (March 26, 2023)