Box office: Jesus Revolution crosses $45 million in its fourth week
It is now the top-grossing "faith-based" film of the past five years. (Well, almost five.)
Jesus Revolution had another decent hold in its fourth week at the box office.
The film—which dramatizes the rise of the Christian hippie movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s—is currently on track to earn $3.5 million this weekend, which would give it a total gross of $45.5 million since opening in late February.
A few quick data points:
This weekend’s gross represents a drop of 31.8% from the film’s third weekend, which is about average for a “faith-based” film in its fourth week; it is also the third-smallest drop this week, percentage-wise, of any film from last week’s top ten. (Only Avatar: The Way of Water and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish—both of which have shown incredible staying power since coming out in December—had smaller drops this week, of 27.4% and 13.8% respectively.)
Jesus Revolution was #7 last week and will be #7 again this week.
Jesus Revolution is the first “faith-based” film to gross over $40 million since 2019’s Breakthrough, and, with $45.5 million in the till so far, it is now the top-grossing “faith-based” film since 2018’s I Can Only Imagine—which, like Jesus Revolution, was produced by Jon and Andrew Erwin (aka “the Erwin brothers”).
There are now twelve “faith-based” films that have grossed over $40 million in North America, and Jon Erwin—who co-directed I Can Only Imagine with his brother Andrew and Jesus Revolution with Brent McCorkle—is the only person to have directed two of them. (The Kendrick brothers have arguably had more success than the Erwin brothers overall, as they have made four films that grossed over $30 million and the Erwins have made only two, but 2015’s War Room is the only Kendrick brothers film that has grossed over $40 million. Also, it’s worth noting that the Erwins’ last two films—2020’s I Still Believe and 2021’s American Underdog—were both compromised by the Covid pandemic.)
Jesus Revolution is currently the 6th-highest-grossing release of 2023, behind Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Creed III, M3GAN, Scream VI, and Cocaine Bear. So with the possible exception of Cocaine Bear (which Wikipedia defines as a “comedy horror thriller”), Jesus Revolution is the highest-grossing film so far this year that isn’t a sequel or a horror movie.
The success of Jesus Revolution prompted movie journalist Michael Cieply to write an article at Deadline today on the return of “faith-based” movies. An excerpt:
Watching Jesus Revolution surge past $45 million in ticket sales for Lionsgate—matching or besting [Best Picture nominees] The Fabelmans, The Banshees Of Inisherin, Tár, Women Talking and Triangle Of Sadness, combined—it finally seems safe to say it. The faith-based audience is back. . . .
In early 2016, while still reporting for The New York Times, I actually spent several months trying to map the often hidden interface between conventional movie companies and those tens of millions of mostly Christian, faith-oriented viewers. Working in loose partnership with fellow reporter Brooks Barnes—though the obsession was mine—I invested a fair amount of energy and Times capital in getting to know dozens of people who were quietly trying to reconcile movies and matters of the spirit. . . .
The most interesting operatives were those being hired by studios to find and promote faith-aligned values in seemingly areligious mainstream films like Frozen, Sully, Hidden Figures or Twelve Years A Slave. Even a film as unlikely as Room, about the close confinement of a kidnapped woman, had its faith campaign. Until the culture boiled over with the 2016 election, movies were important to the religious audience, and that audience was important to the movies. . . .
Ironically, this focus on “faith-based” movies is happening on the same weekend that Shazam! Fury of the Gods—the title refers to pagan gods—is flopping at the box office… and that film stars Zachary Levi, whose last theatrical film was American Underdog, a “faith-based” film directed by the Erwin brothers. Hmmm.
And now, for some updated charts.
Among “faith-based” films, Jesus Revolution—which had the 6th-biggest first-weekend gross, the 9th-biggest second-weekend gross, and the 10th-biggest third-weekend gross—will have the 10th-biggest fourth-weekend gross, if estimates hold.
The film has also now earned $45.5 million in total since opening, which is enough to make it the 9th-highest-grossing “faith-based” film to date.
The film hasn’t changed its position on the box-office charts for its three lead actors since last week, but here are the charts with the updated numbers:
And that, I think, about covers it. More later, perhaps.
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March 23 update: The final numbers are in, and Jesus Revolution ended up just slightly behind the estimate, with $3.48 million for the weekend:
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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)