Why I Love to work on Christian Movies / COURAGEOUS- A Great Success Opening Weekend

For those who know me and followed "my career" in the Marriage and Family world, you may have wondered "Mitch, why have you moved from being deep in the Marriage world like having served as Director of Marriage for a large Family Organization to the movie business? Good question. I have asked myself the same question over and over.

Well, first of all, I am still very much connected to the marriage strengthening world through writing, speaking and serving as a consultant for publishers, authors, family organizations and Family Movie Producers to help them craft their messages, programs and products to be able to influence people in a positive way all over the world. Secondly, I saw Christian/ Family films as an opportunity to reach people with positive family messages in ways that books, lectures, seminars and sermons never could. Our culture has become a culture of movies. Why not use what we have become to shape what we need to be? Thirdly, I decided to practice what I have been preaching for years- to honor your marriage and family.  When my parent’s health began to go down hill a few years ago, I promised myself and them that if God would provide the opportunity that I would move home to care for them. Christian movies have allowed me to take that step and I have not regretted it once. I am honored to be in a position to care for my parents who so faithfully cared for me and so many others through the years.

Plus, how cool is it is that while I honor them, I get to be part of a movement that teaches people how to live out solid values like honoring our parents, loving our spouse unconditionally, leading our children to be world changers and loving and serving the God who made us?

For over 2 years I have been honored to be working on the film Courageous (www.courageousthemovie.com). This is a movie which shows people what a good father, husband, friend and Christian man really looks like. In a media rich world which portrays fathers as goof heads and idiots, its so refreshing to help bring something to our world which speaks the truth about what a Father and Family should look like.

Though there were times during the past two years when I asked myself "did I do the right thing in making this career move?", there is no doubt God has me where he wants me to be. When I read that over a million people sat in theaters this past weekend watching a movie that is designed to change families and lives in a deep personal way, any doubt which may have lingered about my decision was pushed completely out of view.

If you have not heard about COURAGEOUS or you have not seen it yet, go this week. Don’t wait for it to come out on DVD. That's way down the road. Go to the theater this week and vote for more wholesome movies to be made in Hollywood. Buy a ticket and send Hollywood a strong message.

By the way, I think we got their attention. Take a look at just some of the box office outcomes and join me in thanking God for working through this incredible project for good.

1) Ranking. COURAGEOUS was the #4 movie in the country, though it opened against six other movies with almost three times as many screens. It was the #1 new movie of the weekend!

2) Audience. More than 1 million people saw COURAGEOUS this weekend. That's a lot of lives changed!

3) Box office. Total box-office was $9.0 million, $2.2 million more than Fireproof on opening weekend.

4) Per-screen. Per-screen, COURAGEOUS averaged $7,752, almost doubling everyone else.

5) CinemaScore.  COURAGEOUS received a rare A+ CinemaScore, a signal to expect strong word-of-mouth in coming weeks.

6) Mainstream press response. Most general entertainment press and reporting outlets were surprised by COURAGEOUS.   A couple of excerpts:

    Variety

    "Time and again, the pic effectively emphasizes how the deputies are reminded on a daily basis what eventually can happen to at-risk children who don't have fathers involved in their lives. Little wonder, then, that they're moved to ask God's help to hone their own paternal skills."
    

    Box Office Mojo

    "Sherwood Pictures' COURAGEOUS scored $8.8 million from just 1,161 theaters for a strong per-theater average of $7,580. . . The opening ranks fifth all-time for a Christian movie, and only trails THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST and the three NARNIA movies." 

    . . . "Made outside of Hollywood without any major stars, COURAGEOUS managed to fly under most radars (including my own) until very recently. It's unfair to ignore the vast majority of church-going Americans for whom typical Hollywood fare isn't of great interest, though, and Sherwood Pictures has impressively found a way to mobilize this subset of the population."
    

    Time

    Surprise! Dolphins and Jesus Beat Cancer and Dead Kids!

    “Like the Christian-themed SOUL SURFER, the Kendrick's holy-cop film (with a $1-million budget) was pitched to the faithful, who came out fervently this weekend and gave it an A-plus CinemaScore. Opening in just 1,161 theaters, COURAGEOUS had the top per-screen average of any movie in the top 25. Even an agnostic would call that heavenly.”
    

    7) Other indicators. Sales of books and resources supporting film's message—The Resolution books and others—reflect the movie’s spreading influence. Kerusso, maker of t-shirts, reports five times as many COURAGEOUS t-shirts sold as for FIREPROOF.  Meanwhile, Facebook fans count on the COURAGEOUS fan page has leapt in a few days from 224,000 to 245,000.


Since CCOURAGEOUS was so successful opening weekend it will definitely be in theaters next weekend, so please continue to help us encourage people to go to their local theaters.
http://www.courageousthemovie.com/_newsletters/100411/

Thanks for your support of movies and mediums that make a difference.

Mitch