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Peacock’s November programming contains the streamer’s debut of several films like summer box office hit and sequel Twisters starring Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos and more. Shows premiering on the streamer include St. Denis Medical Nov. 13, The Day of the Jackal Nov. 14 and new seasons of Based On A True Story Nov. 21 and Night Court Nov. 20.

For the full schedule of new arrivals, which include some Christmas films later on in the month, read on.

Nov. 1

The American President Angels Sing Annie (1982) Annie (2014) Appetite for Love Atomic Blonde* Back To The Future Back To The Future II Back To The Future III Bad River Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead Belfast* Billy Madison Black Hawk Down Black Nativity Blockers* The Bourne Identity The Bourne Legacy The Bourne Supremacy The Bourne Ultimatum Casino Cbgb A Christmas In Vermont Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas The Day After Tomorrow...

Tubi, Fox’s free streaming service, has announced its list of November titles. The Tubi November 2024 slate features new Tubi Originals, some series, and numerous action, art house, Black cinema, comedy, documentary, drama, horror, kids and family, romance, sci-fi and fantasy, thriller, and Western titles.

As a leading ad-supported video-on-demand service, the company engages diverse audiences through a personalized experience and the world’s largest content library of over 250,000 movies and TV episodes, a growing collection of exclusive Originals, and nearly 250 live channels.

You can watch the Tubi November 2024 lineup for free on Android and iOS mobile devices, Amazon Echo Show, Google Nest Hub Max, Comcast Xfinity X1, and Cox Contour.

You can also watch the service on connected television devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Vizio TVs, Sony TVs, Samsung TVs, Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and on the Tubi site.

Tubi Originals...

Tubi, Fox’s free streaming service, has announced its list of April titles. The April 2024 slate features new Tubi Originals as well as numerous action, Black cinema, comedy, documentary, drama, horror, kids and family, romance, sci-fi and fantasy, thriller, and Western titles.

As a leading ad-supported video-on-demand service, Tubi engages diverse audiences through a personalized experience and the world’s largest content library, which includes over 200,000 movies and TV episodes, a growing collection of Tubi Originals, and nearly 250 Fast channels.

You can watch the Tubi April 2024 lineup for free on Android and iOS mobile devices, Amazon Echo Show, Google Nest Hub Max, Comcast Xfinity X1, and Cox Contour.

You can also watch the service on connected television devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Vizio TVs, Sony TVs, Samsung TVs, Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and on the web at Tubi.tv.

Tubi Originals

Documentary

Behind...

Sam Mercer, producer on several M. Night Shyamalan movies and former head of Ilm, died Feb. 12 of younger onset Alzheimer’s in South Pasadena. He was 69.

Raised in Weston, Mass., he attended Occidental College and then started working as a location manager on 1980s classics including “Stripes,” “The Escape Artist,” “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure,” “Swing Shift,” “Peggy Sue Got Married” and “The Witches of Eastwick.”

He joined the Walt Disney Company as a production executive, supervising films including “Good Morning Vietnam,” “Three Fugitives” and “Dead Poets Society.” He then became VP of motion picture production at Hollywood Pictures, where he oversaw releases including “Quiz Show,” “The Joy Luck Club,” “Born Yesterday,” “Swing Kids,” “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” and “Arachnophobia.”

Mercer then worked as an independent producer, starting with “Congo,” “The Relic” and “Mission to Mars.” After working with Shyamalan on “The Sixth Sense,” then went on...

Sam Mercer, who produced eight M. Night Shyamalan films starting with the spooky blockbuster The Sixth Sense, has died. He was 69.

Mercer died Feb. 12 at his home in South Pasadena after a battle with younger-onset Alzheimer’s, his wife, Tegan Jones, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Mercer was seen as an out-of-the-box hire when he joined Industrial Light & Magic in September 2015 to oversee and coordinate activities of the VFX giant’s studios in San Francisco, Vancouver, London and Singapore. However, he left the next year after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Mercer began his career as a location manager on films including Stripes (1981), National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983), Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) and The Witches of Eastwick (1987).

He joined Disney and was a production executive on such features as Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) and Dead Poets Society (1989), and as a production vp at Hollywood Pictures, he oversaw the release of films...

After a season of spending, Freevee knows you don't have to break the bank for quality. The free Amazon streamer has already added several titles to its platform to start the month, including the Tom Hanks-starred "Captain Phillips" and Ryan Coogler's directorial debut "Fruitvale Station," but more great titles will be coming throughout the rest of the month.

Find out The Streamable's top picks for what's here now and what's coming to the streamer throughout January!

Watch Now Free amazonfreevee.com What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Freevee in January 2024? “Baby Driver” | Monday, Jan. 1

Edgar Wright helms the action thriller starring Ansel Elgort as Baby, a prodigal heist getaway driver and music-loving orphan in for one last job before riding off into the sunset with his girlfriend Debora (Lily James). Eiza Gonzalez, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Jon Bernthal, and Kevin Spacey make up the supporting...

Veteran producer Jon Erwin and former Netflix and YouTube exec Kelly Merryman Hoogstraten have announced the launch of The Wonder Project, a new independent studio that will cater to faith and values-oriented audiences.

Founded by Chief Content Officer Erwin and overseen by CEO Hoogstraten, The Wonder Project will look to create premium film and TV content for what they see as a huge audience that has traditionally been underserved by the entertainment industry. They’ll aim to build on the marked success in this arena of such recent titles as The Chosen and The Sound of Freedom, as well as older works like The Passion of the Christ, Heaven is for Real, I Can Only Imagine, War Room, Miracles from Heaven, and Soul Surfer, as they build their global audience.

More than $75 million in seed and Series A funding was raised ahead of launch from such major players as Sovereign’s Capital,...

Prime Video has a fair amount in store for subscribers in November, as the uber-violent hit animated show Invincible returns for its highly anticipated second season. Based on the iconic comic book by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley, season two will find super-powered protagonist Mark attempting to rebuild his life after finding out the truth about his father Nolan.

Elsewhere on the streamer, the producing team behind the James Bond movies are out to spin the franchise in a completely different direction by debuting their curious new globe-trotting adventure series, pitched somewhere between a quiz show and a treasure hunt. 007: Road To A Million features Brian Cox as the game’s “mastermind”, watching over the contestants as they try to win a million quid.

Here’s everything coming to Amazon Prime Video and Freevee this month. Amazon Originals are accompanied by an asterisk!

New on Amazon Prime...

Hillary Swank rallies her entire town to help out a neighbor in the latest trailer for Lionsgate’s true-life faith-based drama “Ordinary Angels.”

The two-time Oscar winner plays a hairdresser who inserts herself into the life of a grieving widower with a critically ill daughter. The kid needs a new liver, and the dad just needs a little help. As revealed in the trailer, circumstances change when a new organ becomes available for transplant, but it requires a cross-country flight and happens to occur during a once-in-a-generation cold front.

Swank won two Best Actress Oscars, one in 2000 for “Boys Don’t Cry” and one in 2005 for “Million Dollar Baby.” Although she never really became a bankable draw, she has made a career out of mostly top-billed leading roles in films like “Amelia,” “The Core” and “The Gift.” Moreover, she almost never found herself just playing the love interest or the lone woman in a macho melodrama,...

Thomas Dexter, better known as T.D. Jakes, is an American non-denominational Christian preacher. He is known as the senior pastor of The Potter’s House, a non-denominational American megachurch. He is also the author of many published books, while having dabbled in a bit of film production as well.

T.D. Jakes Biography: Age, Early Life, Family, Education

T.D. Jakes was born on June 9, 1957 (T.D. Jakes age: 66) in South Charleston, West Virginia. His father, Ernest Sr., was a businessman and entrepreneur, while his mother, Odith, was employed as an educator.

Jakes was raised in Vandalia, West Virginia. He was born the youngest of three children.

As a result of his slight lisp, Jakes was told that he would never be able to preach his ideas.

When Jakes was just 10 years old, his father developed kidney failure. Jakes and his mother cared for him until his tragic death in 1973.

In...

John Wright, the film editor who received Oscar nominations for his work on Jan de Bont’s Speed and The Hunt for Red October, one of six movies he cut for John McTiernan, has died. He was 79.

Wright died April 20 at his home in Calabasas after a battle with prostate and bone cancer, his wife of 57 years, Jane Wright, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Wright’s résumé also included such other high-profile films as Sam Peckinpah’s Convoy (1978), Paul Michael Glaser’s The Running Man (1987), Stan Dragoti’s Necessary Roughness (1991), John Woo’s Broken Arrow (1996), Bryan Singer’s X-Men (2000), James Gartner’s Glory Road (2006) and Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk (2008).

He collaborated with directors Mel Gibson on The Passion of the Christ (2004) and Apocalypto (2006); with Graeme Clifford on Frances (1982) and Gleaming the Cube (1989); and with Randall Wallace on Secretariat (2010) and Heaven Is for Real (2014).

Wright was nominated for an Emmy...

Emmy-winning TV and film editor John Gordon Wright, who cut notable titles including “Speed,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “X-Men” and “The Passion of the Christ,” died April 20 at his home in Calabasas after a battle with cancer. He was 79.

Wright, who worked frequently with directors including John McTiernan and Mel Gibson, received an Emmy award for his work on “Sarah, Plain and Tall” as well Oscar nominations for his work on “The Hunt for Red October” and “Speed.”

More than 50 years ago, Wright began his prolific career as a film editor, first working at The James Company. In 1973, Wright contributed to the TV movie “Strange Creatures of the Night” and soon moved into feature editing. Soon after Wright edited for “Life Goes to War: Hollywood and the Home Front” and “Acapulco Gold.”

Following his work throughout the 1970s — including “Dogs,” “The Family Man,” “Sancutary of Fear” — Wright then worked 10 films throughout the 1980s,...

On Easter weekend, TheWrap lists the top 10 highest grossing Christian films in box office history.

10.”Miracles From Heaven” (2016)

The Jennifer Garner film made $61.7 million this year on a budget of $13 million, good for eighth all time, adjusted for inflation.

9. “God’s Not Dead” (2014)

Starring Kevin Sorbo, Shane Harper, David A.R. White, and Dean Cain, “God’s Not Dead” opened to $60.8 million in 2014 ($61.8 million adjusted for inflation) on a budget of $2 million. Its box office success warranted a 2016 sequel.

8. “Exodus: Gods and Kings” (2014)

The film starring Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, John Turturro and Aaron Paul grossed $65 million domestically.

7. “War Room” (2015)

The Sony Pictures film raised holy hell at the box office when it opened in August of 2015. It ended up making $67.8 million on a budget of $3 million. Adjusted for inflation, that’s $68.8 million.

6. “I Can Only Imagine” (2018)

Jon and Andrew Erwins’ take on the story behind MercyMe’s record-setting Christian single was so...

Wednesday has never looked so good. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (Universal) opened to a stunning $31.7 million and Ben Affleck’s “Air” (MGM) grossed $3.2 million. Five-day projections for both films rose sharply just before opening to around $125 million and $16 million, respectively; initial figures suggest we’ll see those expectations met for “Air” and significantly exceeded for “Super Mario Bros.”

Pre-Easter Wednesday openings are traditionally reserved for faith-based releases like last year’s “Father Stu” and the 2014 “Heaven Is for Real.” The success of this weekend’s films could mean future release strategies will identify this long weekend as a fresh pre-holiday opportunity. That said, the result for “Super Mario Bros.” would have been sensational even had it opened Friday.

“Super Mario Bros.” and “Air” chose the date for their own reasons. Universal’s expectations of a huge gross for the animated film, combined with many school kids on vacation and...

Nice vistas and a scenery-chewing Famke Janssen aren’t enough to save this absurd scriptural rehash from movie hell

The latest from evangelical Christian producers Pinnacle Peak – formerly Pure Flix, the money behind the surprisingly enduring God’s Not Dead series – is an adaptation of a Francine Rivers novel that remaps the biblical tale of Hosea on to a western goldrush setting. That synopsis suggests a level of creative imagination and ambition, possibly something like Michael Winterbottom hauling The Mayor of Casterbridge further west for 2000’s The Claim. Yet this movie thinly scatters a parable’s worth of plot across 134 minutes and resembles HBO’s Deadwood recut for Sunday-school purposes: pious, puzzling and punitive, with a sternly wagging finger never far from entering the frame.

Let us give Pinnacle Peak this: they’re getting mildly more sophisticated about delivering The Message. DJ Caruso, a studio director of the mid-00s thrillers Taking Lives and Disturbia,...

Randall Wallace is set to direct the action-adventure thriller The Swiss Guard off his screenplay. Cameras will roll this fall in Rome, and casting is already underway.

The project is set in the modern-day Vatican and centers around a plot to kidnap the newly installed Pope who has committed himself to total reform of the Church and its finances. When a corps of assassins enter the Vatican, all that stands between them and their mission is a woman, the first female Swiss Guard, who has just

been summoned by the Pope to help him confront a mysterious past and a dangerous future.

Wallace will also produce along with Bruce Hendricks, former President of Production at The Walt Disney Studios. Steve Beeks, the former co-President of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, will serve as EP. Clair de Lune Films is pic’s principal financier.

Wallace said, “The Swiss Guard is exactly the...

Thomas Haden Church will star in and executive produce the multi-cam comedy “The Texanist” currently in development at Fox.

The series, which Variety exclusively reported was in development back in January, is innspired by the long-running Texas Monthly column of the same name. It centers on Dave (Church), an opinionated Austin-area radio show host who calls ‘em like he sees ‘em, dispensing advice to Texas natives and newcomers, alike, on what he knows to be the true Texas Way of life. But the Texas Way is changing, and now Dave’s job is becoming much more complicated. Listening to advice from his wife, family and co-workers, Dave must now become the arbiter of which changes to embrace and which to reject, possibly opening his mind in the process.

Should the project go to series, it would mark a return to multi-cam broadcast comedy for Church, who broke out during his...

Exclusive: Affirm Films, Sony Pictures’ label specializing in inspirational, faith and family-friendly features, is expanding into television. Affirm Films has partnered with Sony Pictures Television to launch Affirm Television and has tapped tapped Marybeth Sprows, VP Original Programming for Crown Media Family Networks to run it. As VP, Affirm Television, Sprows will oversee all aspects of development and production, with a dual report to Rich Peluso, Evp/Head of Affirm Films, and Chris Parnell and Jason Clodfelter, Co-Presidents at Sony Pictures Television Studios.

“The pairing of Affirm Films and Sony Pictures Television brings together two passionate, experienced and focused groups with unique strengths that will make a mark in the television and episodic space,” said Peluso. “I’m eager to start working with Marybeth Sprows and the Spt team to create entertaining and meaningful content that will connect with an underserved audience seeking faith, family and inspirational content, and expanding...

Exclusive: NBC has put in development Kingdom Business, a gospel music industry drama produced by DeVon Franklin’s Franklin Entertainment, Holly Carter’s Relevé Entertainment, Kirk Franklin and Fo Yo Soul Entertainment, Michael Van Dyck’s Inspired Entertainment and Universal TV, a division of NBCUniversal Content Studios.

Written by John Sakmar and Kerry Lenhart, Kingdom Business is a behind-the-scenes look into the world of the gospel music industry and all of the conflict and secrets that come with money, fame and success.

Sakmar and Lenhart executive produce with DeVon Franklin, Carter, Kirk Franklin and Van Dyck. Universal TV is the studio.

Sakmar and Lenhart created mid-’90s TV series Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which aired for one season on CBS. The writing-producing duo served as consulting producers on Reign and Make It Or Break It, and co-executive producers on The Glades and Signed, Sealed & Delivered, among other credits.

DeVon Franklin has signed a first-look producing deal at Paramount Pictures.

Under his Franklin Entertainment banner, Franklin previously produced inspirational and faith-based films, including this year’s “Breakthrough,” starring Chrissy Metz, as well as “Miracles From Heaven,” with Jennifer Garner and Queen Latifah, and the animated film “The Star,” toplined by Zachary Levi, Gina Rodriguez, Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry.

Prior to launching his own production company, Franklin was a senior vice president of production at Columbia TriStar, where he worked on “Heaven Is for Real,” “The Karate Kid” and “The Pursuit of Happyness.” He is also the author of multiple books, including the New York Times bestseller “The Wait,” which he co-wrote with his wife, Meagan Good.

“We couldn’t be happier to be collaborating with DeVon to bring his unique brand of uplifting stories to our audiences,” said Wyck Godfrey, president of Paramount’s Motion Picture Group. “His...

DeVon Franklin, the producer behind faith-based films such as the Jennifer Garner and Queen Latifah-starrer Miracles from Heaven, has inked first-look producing deal with Paramount Pictures.

Franklin’s most recent film, Breakthrough starring Chrissy Metz, was released in April via 20th Century Fox, where Franklin held an overall deal. He currently has Flamin’ Hot, the Eva Longoria-directed biopic about the man who created the spicy Flamin’ Hot Cheetos snack, set at Fox Searchlight.

Prior to launching his own production shingle, Franklin Entertainment, Franklin served as Senior Vice President of Production at Sony’s Columbia TriStar and worked on pics such as Heaven is For Real, The Karate Kid, and The Pursuit of Happyness. Earlier this year, Deadline reported that he has re-teamed with Sony for a biopic about multi-platinum gospel singer Kirk Franklin.

Franklin is also a preacher, motivational speaker, and the author of multiple books including the...

Paramount Pictures on Monday announced a first-look producing deal with preacher-turned-producer DeVon Franklin.

Under his Franklin Entertainment banner, Franklin will work with the Hollywood studio to make faith-based films following the box office success of such efforts as Breakthrough, starring Chrissy Metz; Miracles From Heaven, starring Jennifer Garner and Queen Latifah; and the animated film The Star, starring Zachary Levi, Gina Rodriguez, Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry.

Before launching his own production company, Franklin was senior vp production at Columbia TriStar, where he worked on Heaven Is For Real, The Karate Kid and The Pursuit of Happyness, among other titles.

"We ...

Paramount Pictures on Monday announced a first-look producing deal with preacher-turned-producer DeVon Franklin.

Under his Franklin Entertainment banner, Franklin will work with the Hollywood studio to make faith-based films following the box office success of such efforts as Breakthrough, starring Chrissy Metz; Miracles From Heaven, starring Jennifer Garner and Queen Latifah; and the animated film The Star, starring Zachary Levi, Gina Rodriguez, Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry.

Before launching his own production company, Franklin was senior vp production at Columbia TriStar, where he worked on Heaven Is For Real, The Karate Kid and The Pursuit of Happyness, among other titles.

"We ...

“The Curse of La Llorona,” the latest entry in Warner Bros. and New Line’s “Conjuring” universe, conjured $2.75 million from Thursday preview showings, while “Breakthrough,” a faith-based offering from Fox-Disney, brought in $1.5 million from its second day of screenings.

“La Llorona’s” haul tops recent horror counterparts “Pet Sematary” and “Escape Room,” which each took in $2.3 million in previews.

The two films are hoping to dominate the Easter and Passover holiday box office, but they face stiff competition from “Shazam!,” the tongue-in-cheek superhero flick that has topped charts for two weekends in a row. The domestic haul of “Shazam!” stands at $104 million.

“Breakthrough,” which is the first 20th Century Fox film to be released by Disney since it wrapped its deal to buy most of the studio’s assets, already got a jump on the weekend, opening on Wednesday. It is expected to earn between $13 million to $20 million from 2,700 theaters...

Just before landing her star-making role as Kate Pearson in NBC’s mega-hit “This Is Us,” Chrissy Metz was broker than the Ten Commandments, with exactly 81 cents to her name.

Fast-forward three years and Metz, now one of TV’s biggest stars, is making her big screen debut in “Breakthrough,” a faith-based movie about a fierce mother who practically wills her son back to life through the power of prayer.

“I really do believe in the power of prayer and the collective consciousness,” Metz told TheWrap. “Personally, it’s helped me navigate some really, really, really tough waters.”

Also Read: 'This Is Us' Star Chrissy Metz on Overcoming Body Shamers: 'Hurt People Hurt People'

“Breakthrough” tells the real-life story of John Smith, a 14-year-old from St. Charles, Missouri, who in 2015, fell through the ice of Lake St. Louis. He had been submerged in the freezing water for a...

With Disney and Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame” gearing up to obliterate box office records, the rest of Hollywood is laying low on the film front.

“Endgame,” a culmination of sorts for the comic-book empire’s film saga, is expected to suck all the oxygen out of other movie theater auditoriums when it launches on April 26. For the most part, studios shied away from major releases even before Avengers in fear that rival movies could struggle to recoup ticket sales beyond opening weekend.

However, there was at least one studio brave enough to take on Disney, and that is, well, Disney. The Magic Kingdom is launching two movies this weekend, most notably, “Breakthrough,” the studio’s first Fox title since completing its $71 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox. Disney also has “Penguins,” a documentary from the Buena Vista company’s Disneynature label. Both titles are getting a head start on the weekend by opening on Wednesday.

“Unplanned” is exactly the movie you expect it to be, which is why it’s making healthy profits despite minimal advertising and overwhelmingly negative reviews. Like other faith-based films before it — the “God’s Not Dead” series, “Heaven Is for Real,” and “I Can Only Imagine” all come to mind — Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman’s anti-abortion drama is preaching to the choir. Pure Flix Entertainment knows that its self-selecting audience would rather have its existing views affirmed rather than challenged, a strategy they’re far from the first to employ. Christian moviegoers are hardly the only demographic guilty of wanting to see their ideals reflected back at them, as evidenced by the reception to any number of toothless prestige pictures.

But what about when viewers like a movie or TV series despite its values, not because of them? Do conservative “Game of Thrones” obsessives resent the fact that it...

A decade or so ago, families used to make a Blockbuster run to pick up several of the latest movies to watch over the course of a weekend. The video store chain is now a distant memory and with its extinction, a way of renting movies has largely disappeared.

That may be changing. FandangoNOW, an on-demand video service, has deals in place with most of the major studios that will allow it to create packages of movie rentals. They’ve labeled the offering “binge bundles,” and describe the service as a way for consumers to watch multiple movies for a lower price. Sony, Paramount, Lionsgate, and Universal are just a few of the companies that are participating in the program. It launches on Labor Day weekend with more than 100 bundles.

The slate features several hit franchises such as a collection for fans of adventures featuring CIA analyst Jack Ryan, as...

Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions President Steve Bersch announced today that, effective June 1, Dan Primozic has been upped to Executive Vice President of Business Affairs for Screen Gems.

In a memo to his colleagues, Bersch wrote that Primozic, who currently serves as Svp Business Affairs for Spwa and Affirm Films label, will maintain his position at Affirm, “where he’s managed business matters on film’s like Fireproof, Jumping The Broom, Soul Surfer, Sparkle, Heaven Is For Real, Risen, and War Room.”

Said Bersch: “Dan’s excellent judgment and vast experience in all of the business aspects of development and production will continue to be a great benefit to all of us who work with him.”...

“Ready Player One” scored at home and abroad with $181 million worldwide, creating his biggest success since “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” in 2008. Even so, the box-office slump of 2018 continues. The weekend dropped over 20 percent from the same date last year, bringing the year to over three percent lower through the first quarter of 2018.

Read More: ‘Ready Player One’: Steven Spielberg Is the King of Blockbusters, and He Needs a Hit

Spielberg’s film is the second-best weekend opening of the year, and only the second over $40 million. By this time last year, eight films had better openings, with six of them higher than “Ready Player One.”

If “Ready” has a three-time multiple of its first four days, it would total $170 million. That would be a strong achievement, although his 18th-biggest film overall. The never-certain China dominated the $128 million showing in most of the world (Japan...

Essentially the “Why We Fight” series for The War on Christmas, the “God’s Not Dead” franchise has — with its first two installments — asserted itself as the chintziest and most intellectually counterfeit branch of the lucrative faith-based film wave that it’s helped to define. Whereas other recent offerings like “Heaven Is for Real” and last week’s “I Can Only Imagine” are largely harmless in how they preach to the choir and prostrate themselves before Evangelical audiences, Pure Flix’s “God’s Not Dead” saga has been defined by a persecution complex large enough to crucify Christ the Redeemer.

These movies are fundamentalist propaganda aimed at people who are convinced their religion is under attack in this country just because it doesn’t exempt them from the Constitution. At a time when antisemitic hate crimes are on the rise and America is openly hostile towards its own Muslim community...

Christian movies are ready to cross over. Fourteen years have passed since “The Passion of the Christ” became a national sensation, and while no one has managed to match the hysteria that greeted Mel Gibson’s New Testament snuff film, companies like Pure Flix and Mission Pictures International have cultivated a lucrative cottage industry of cinema for the Focus on the Family crowd. Over and over again, these religious offerings have surprised box office pundits and raked in blockbuster numbers, with everyone from Pat Robertson to Joel Osteen spreading the good word in an effort to close the gap between megachurches and multiplexes.

“Heaven Is for Real,” the inspirational story of a little boy who once died for a few minutes, gross $93 million in the United States. “Fireproof,” in which Kirk Cameron plays a porn-addicted fireman, earned $33 million off a $500,000 budget. “God’s Not Dead,” a 2014 Kevin Sorbo vehicle about...

Faith-based filmmaking isn’t dead. While the genre has struggled recently to turn out crossover hits (and nothing has topped the $611M take of Mel Gibson’s controversial smash hit “The Passion of the Christ,” still the top earner in the genre 14 years after its release), brothers Andrew and Jon Erwin’s latest film, “I Can Only Imagine,” surprised this weekend’s box office with a $17 million opening take, good enough to push it to third place in a crowded field. Among contemporary Christian community titles, only “Heaven Is for Real” had a better opening, scoring $22 million when it opened in 2014.

Other faith-based movies have recently faltered at the box office, making the success of “I Can Only Imagine” as a bit of an outlier in a struggling — and often independently made — genre. The last big Christian-leaning hit to crack $100 million at the domestic box office was 2010’s “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader...

As “Black Panther” continues its astonishing run, the breakout surprise of the weekend was $17-million opener “I Can Only Imagine,” a Christian crowdpleaser, as well as gay teen romance “Love, Simon.”

A month ago, the strong showing for “Panther” suggested a positive trend for the industry; this weekend, the total box office collapsed compared to 2017, when it was boosted by “Beauty and the Beast.” (Given spring break and holiday factors, exact correlations are tough.) Two years ago, 2016 saw six $30-million openers by this point. This year, we only have “Black Panther.”

“Tomb Raider” Opens Bigger Overseas

That’s the context for measuring Warner Bros.’ $23-million domestic opening for $100-million franchise reboot “Tomb Raider,” starring athletic Swedish Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander, who nabbed better reviews than the movie. It’s hardly a disaster. After all, it has already booked $102 million overseas, with China the biggest at $41 million. The international take will likely propel it to profit.

Principal photography underway in Savannah, Georgia.

Armory Films has announced that John Hawkes, Jon Bernthal, Thomas Haden Church, and Yelawolf will join the cast of The Peanut Butter Falcon.

The film directed by Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz centres on Zak, a young man with Down Syndrome who has been confined to live in a retirement home for most of his life.

One day he breaks out and takes to the road to try to find his hero, a retired wrestler named The Salt Water Redneck. Along the way Zak experiences adventure and danger, and joins forces with a desperado crab fisherman and a kind nurse.

The cast also includes newcomer Zachary Gottsagen, Shia Labeouf, Dakota Johnson, and Bruce Dern.

Armory Films’ Tim Zajaros and Christopher Lemole are producing and financing the film, alongside Bona Fide Productions’ Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa, T Bone Burnett, Lije Sarki, and David Thies. Burnett will also...

Marketing, publicity executives report to Tom Ortenberg.

Open Road Films has named Loren Schwartz president of marketing while Liz Biber has been promoted to president of publicity.

Schwartz and Biber will report directly to Open Road Films CEO Tom Ortenberg, who made the announcement on Tuesday.

Open Road marketed and distributed Armenian Genocide drama The Promise at the weekend on behalf of Survival Pictures. The film reportedly cost more than $90m and opened on $4.1m in 2,251 theatres.

Schwartz is Open Road’s third marketing chief in 14 months. He replaces Jonathan Helfgot, who only took the place of Jason Cassidy in March 2016 and is understood to be joining Fox as head of theatrical marketing.

Biber has been head of publicity since the company’s inception in 2011.

Schwartz most recently served as executive vice-president of genre marketing and advertising at Warner Bros.

Prior to that, he was senior vice-president of creative advertising at Columbia Pictures, where he worked...

Christian movies: Starring Nicolas Cage, the widely panned 2014 apocalyptic thriller 'Left Behind' was a box office bomb – unlike (relatively) recent popular 'faith movies' such as 'Heaven Is for Real,' 'Son of God' and 'War Room.' A thought on the New Christian American Cinema: Tired of the blatant propaganda found in 'mainstream' Christian movies Two films that might be called “Christian movies” opened last week, and I decided that I wouldn't watch them, write about them, or review them – at least directly. I'm not even going to mention their titles here because I don't promote propaganda films, and that's what this recent advent of Christian movies has become: propaganda. After all, since nearly all American cinema is Christian cinema, the New Christian American Cinema is in fact pure propaganda – not cinema. Worse yet, it bores me. So, here's the thing about what we've come to call...

‘The Discovery’ Hides Purgatory Behind a Promising PremiseWhy prove there’s an afterlife if you don’t engage with it?

Sometimes you hear a premise that’s worth seeing through even if you know the film can’t possibly live up to it. Netflix’s The Discovery, the second film by writer/director Charlie McDowell, is one of those. Science has proven, beyond doubt, that we exist beyond life. Brainwaves have been measured and in some peer-reviewed sense, the afterlife exists. The only problem is — if it’s even a problem at all — the suicide rate has skyrocketed. People have some certainty so they’re getting out while the getting’s good. What’s on the other side, what they’re escaping the pain and suffering of this mortal coil into, well, that’s something the scientists haven’t quite gotten to yet.

McDowell’s debut film The One I Love has a similarly tantalizing premise that...

The first time I spoke out loud to anyone about The Vampire Diaries, I thought they were talking about Twilight.

RelatedVampire Diaries Series Finale Recap: Heaven Is for Real — Grade That Ending

The year was 2009. The show was just six episodes into its first season, and I was only a few days into my first real entertainment reporting job since graduating college.

“Should we do something about this vampire show?” my boss asked, to which I honestly replied, “Do you mean Twilight? That’s a movie.” (For the record, I wish I could return to this exact moment in time...

If you’re a die-hard fan of The Vampire Diaries, there’s a good chance your brain is exhausted right now.

RelatedVampire Diaries Series Finale Recap: Heaven Is for Real — Grade It!

Friday’s last hurrah went full throttle for an entire hour, throwing endless twists — some wonderful, others devastating — at confused fans, leaving a lot up to interpretation. And while we’ve already shared insight into Stefan’s death and Klaus’ letter, there’s always more to be mined.

RelatedVampire Diaries Boss Breaks Down the Series Finale’s Originals Moment: ‘There Are More Stories to Be Told’

Because everyone...

The lagging 2017 box office got a big boost as “Logan” (20th Century Fox), starring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine — the first of three anticipated March juggernauts — opened like a summer franchise blockbuster. The offshoot from the “Wolverine” subset of X-Men movies marks the first R-rating for the storied franchise.

Even better, it wasn’t the only upbeat news this post-Oscars weekend. Hitchcockian thriller “Get Out” (Universal), the Blumhouse sleeper from Jordan Peele, dropped only 22 per cent on its second weekend, which is stunning.

And Lionsgate, fresh off eight wins from “La La Land” and “Hacksaw Ridge” on Oscar night, returned with the surprisingly strong faith-based “The Shack,” starring “Hidden Figures” Oscar-nominee and Saturday Night Live host Octavia Spencer.

The post-Oscar results were mixed to positive, as two of the top category winners are already available for home viewing. “Moonlight” (streaming and available on DVD/Blu-Ray) had both the widest break...

Margaret Qualley appears in Novitiate by Maggie Betts, an official selection of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Mark Levine.

Without wanting to go full “war on Christmas” here, I don’t think it would a stretch to say the cinematic landscape is not particularly bountiful with serious explorations of the Christian faith. It mostly falls into the range between reductive family dramas like Heaven is For Real, near-faithless epics like Exodus: Gods and Kings, or flippant dismissals of the whole scene like Sausage Party. I wasn’t particularly certain Sundance would be the place to go for an earnest depiction, but I wandered into this Vatican II-era nun drama nonetheless, hoping for some spark of honest engagement. I got a good deal more than a spark in return.

Cathleen (Margaret Qualley), despite having not been raised Catholic, decides at age 17 to become a nun.

An A-list voice cast is lending talents to Sony Pictures Animation’s The Star. Executive produced by DeVon Franklin, who is known for the faith-based films Heaven Is For Real and Miracles From Heaven along with Lisa and Brian Henson, The Star now has its own stars saddling up on the film: Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Tracy Moran, Kris Kristofferson, Kristin Chenoweth, Kelly Clarkson, Gabriel Iglesias, Ving Rhames and Gina Rodriguez, as well as Steven Yeun who plays the…...

It's been a tough year for that large but elusive box office constituency, the religious believers. The biggest faith-market film to date, TriStar's Miracles From Heaven, did all right, with almost $62 million at the domestic box office; but it far underperformed the same company's Heaven Is For Real, which took in more than $91 million when it was released in 2014. Meanwhile, Hollywood's top-ranked Evangelical executive, Rob Moore, was fired as Paramount's vice-chairman…...

Simon Brew Sep 1, 2016

The Resurrection will be the follow-up to The Passion Of The Christ, confirms Mel Gibson...

Following rumours earlier in the year, Mel Gibson has now confirmed that he does indeed have plans to make The Passion Of The Christ 2.

The first movie, that he directed and effectively self-funded, grossed over $600m worldwide back in 2004. The existence of a follow-up was revealed by screenwriter Randall Wallace earlier this year, and now – for the first time – Gibson himself has confirmed the news.

“Of course, that is a huge undertaking, and you know, it’s not the Passion 2. It’s called The Resurrection”, Gibson told the SoCal Harvest evangelical event over the weekend.

“Of course, that’s a very big subject and it needs to be looked at because we don’t want to just do a simple rendering of it – you know, read what happened. But in order to read it,...

When The Passion Of The Christ came out in 2004, it was a phenomenon. Everyone was talking about it. Whether it was the visceral storytelling, some of the more controversial decisions director Mel Gibson made, or Gibson's own unraveling personal life, you couldn't escape it. The $30 million movie made a stunning $612 million worldwide.

Recently, writer Randall Wallace let the cat out of the bag that work had begun on a sequel. Titled The Resurrection, the film would seemingly center on the return of Christ who- Spoiler Alert- died at the end of the last film. Aside from Wallace's revelation, director Gibson has been relatively mum on the project. Until now.

In a chat with fans at the SoCal Harvest evangelical event over the weekend, Gibson opened up a bit about the challenges of making the sequel- which he describes as a "huge undertaking." Gibson says, "It’s not the ‘Passion 2.’ It’s called ‘The Resurrection.

2016-08-22T10:34:55-07:00'Ben-Hur' Flop: Can Faith-Based Movies Play in the Big Leagues?

Last weekend's launch of the Biblical-historical epic Ben-Hur was an unqualified disaster, despite a concerted marketing effort by its studio to pitch the movie toward Christian audiences who, the studio hoped, were willing to come out in large numbers to support faith-based movies. The number of moviegoers turned out to be much too small, however, to make the big-budget Ben-Hur a success. Does that mean that faith-based movies have become a bad gamble?

Ben-Hur took in $11.3 million in its opening weekend, an awful figure considering that the film had a production budget of approximately $100 million. Even 2014's Exodus: Gods and Kings, widely considered to be a fine example of a big-budget Biblical flop, took in more than twice as much in its first weekend. Noah, another Biblical disappointment, earned $43 million in its...

Three new wide releases are hitting theaters this weekend with Focus Features' and Laika's stop-motion animated project Kubo and the Two Strings serving as the widest debut of the lot. Fellow openers include Warner Bros' War Dogs and Paramount's Ben-Hur, though none of this weekend's new releases are likely to find themselves atop the box office. The DC Comics adaptation Suicide Squad is looking to threepeat as the weekend's #1 film while Sony's R-rated animated feature Sausage Party hopes to hold off Kubo for a second weekend in the runner-up position. Overall this weekend should be yet another improvement over the same weekend last year with the top twelve pulling in around $120 million altogether. Before we get to the weekend's new releases we'll begin with a couple of carryovers, starting with Suicide Squad, which, along with 19 other wide release films in 2016, dropped over 60% in its second weekend. Of those 20 films,...

Within the first few minutes of Sausage Party, a package of horny “virgin” hot dogs boast to a group of neighboring buns how they’ll fulfill their wildest desires when they are finally able to fornicate by sticking themselves inside the flaps of the respective rolls. This opening — after a lavish musical number — serves as a useful litmus test for Seth Rogen’s brainchild: an R-rated animation that isn’t as interested in re-inventing the wheel as it is taking that wheel, lathering it with vulgarity, and spinning it again, and again, and again. While this sounds like a slight, as Sausage Party breaks out of its Pixar-inspired packaging, so to speak, its repetitiveness evolves into a delirious cacophony of obscenities that will terrify the children of unaware parents for decades to come.

The food is alive at the massive supermarket Shopwell’s, but, unlike Toy Story, a human in...

Mel Gibson is working with his Braveheart scribe Randall Wallace on a sequel to The Passion of the Christ. I've gotta say... I didn't see that coming! Gibson self-financed Passion of the Christ with 30 million dollars which exploded in theaters when it was released in 2004 and made over 611 million dollars worldwide.

The news comes from Wallace himself while talking with THR. He told them that the movie would focus on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's really the only way they could have gone! The report goes on to say:

Wallace, who most recently directed and co-wrote the 2014 faith-based drama Heaven Is for Real, says he and Gibson began to get serious about a sequel to The Passion, the most successful independent film of all time, while making Hacksaw Ridge, which Gibson directed and Wallace co-wrote. Hacksaw Ridge opens in November and centers on World War II Army medic Desmond Doss,...