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December 13, 2005

The Passion of the Popcorn Stand

At my evangelical high school, I remember our Bible class delighting over the fact that The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was selected as the school play by the secular high school across town. Heck, the irony was that the atheistic president of their drama club picked out the play and would be playing Aslan - the Christ figure.

While friends of our incorrectly predicted that the Donnie Darko drama Brokeback Mountain would bomb, I noted to my own friends how groups like the Family Research Council would spin the box office weekend as a victory for Jesus over the catty cattlemen. Despite predictions, Brokeback broke box-office records for screen-pulls in its very-limited release (only 10 movie screens nationwide). High-yield limited releases are usually a sign of great future wide-distribution success. The movie even pulled more per screen than the mega-hit Narnia.

Still, this yesterday from FRC:

Last week's release of the film version of C.S. Lewis's classic The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was a roar at the box office. Over the weekend, Narnia pulled in $67.1 million, leading by more than 5-1 the second ranking film, Syriana, which pulled in $12 million. Syriana stars liberal actor George Clooney. His film demonizes oil companies. Narnia demonizes demons.

Meanwhile, Hollywood's hometown paper, Variety, was in full-gush mode over Friday's release of the gay cowboy epic, Brokeback Mountain. Brokeback scored the highest per-screen average of any movie this year, Variety enthused. Translated, that means that in the limited number of theaters where the film played, it did very well. How well did it do for its first weekend on the circuit? It brought in "an astounding $544,549," Variety breathlessly informs us. That hardly seems mountainous to us. But I'm sure there's a savvy insider industry answer. Distributors of Brokeback Mountain plan to "go wide by the Martin Luther King Day frame." Interesting. That might give the Hollywood wind machine enough time to puff this molehill into a mountain. For now, however, Narnia is the best bet for family-friendly fare. Variety and the critics may ignore it, but as Ronald Reagan always said: There's a big difference between the critics and the box office.

Yes, even Jesus needs an Oscar campaign.

Posted by John at December 13, 2005 09:30 AM