With ‘Jesus Revolution,’ The Faithful Are Back In Their Movie Theater Pews

https://deadline.com/2023/03/with-jesus-revolution-faithful-back-movie-theater-pews-1235303906/

Watching Jesus Revolution surge past $45 million in ticket sales for Lionsgate—matching or besting 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.

Between Covid and the culture wars, it’s been a rough few years for those who make, promote and/or enjoy what are loosely called inspirational films. Sometimes the pictures are overtly religious, as with Jesus Revolution, the real-life story of a pastor and his counter-cultural following in the 1970s. Others are simply aspirational—moralistic, values-laden tales, like Creed III or Respect, about individuals striving to be more and better than they already are.

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.