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God’s Not Dead?: Why Faith-Based Films Can’t Find Their Footing

This weekend sees the release of God’s Not Dead: A Light In Darkness, the third and final film in the God’s Not Dead franchise that started with the surprise success of the original film in 2014 that grossed $60 million domestically on a $2 million budget. Though faith-based films have been around since the early twentieth century, a new type of religious film-making seemed to emerge after God’s Not Dead, or at least gained in popularity: low-budget films that overly dramatized the religion. Just last year, nine faith-based films were released in wide or semi-wide release (and living in Arkansas, every one of them came to my surrounding theaters), though not all of them followed the same formula as God’s Not Dead. Nor were all of them as successful at the box office. And as we have seen this year, that outlook isn’t getting any better, as three of the four faith-based films continue the streak of under-performing domestically, including the third installment of the God’s Not Dead, tracking only for a $3 million opening weekend. So are these films performing poorly to their demographic? As a religious individual who loves films, I’m here to explain what these films can do to become relevant again:

Don’t Become Too Preachy: 

Saying a faith-based film shouldn’t include dialogue and messages relating to the religion they’re portraying may sound ridiculous, but preaching to a choir already in agreement will do nothing but alienate them. Having characters speak a sermon every time they’re on screen does little in the way of make sense or interest the existing fan base and those the film is arguably not made for. Personally I know some who ONLY go to these sorts of films, yet more recently have been warded off knowing they’re going to see the same bible verses spoken in scenarios that make little sense, with characters that become caricatures of the Christian faith. Some period films, such as Son of God (2014), get leeway because this is how they talked, however, even these films make point of only highlighting the religious side of the argument. 

Unrealistic Characters, Scenarios, and Stories: 

Piggy-backing on sermons in every piece of dialogue, many of these religious films honestly fail in providing both realistic stories presented in a realistic way. The entirety of the second God’s Not Dead film revolves around a story concerning attack against Christianity. In Arkansas. And being from a town in Arkansas that once held the record for most churches per square mile, I can tell you such an event would NEVER happen. The belief that any sort of persecution against Christians occurs in 21st century United States is laughable and conspiratorial. Professors aren’t going to fail you for believing God exists (God’s Not Dead), nor is the church going to turn on you for admitting amazing occurrences related to God (Miracles From Heaven). And again, no characters are as ‘devote’ as these films portray them as in present day. And by the way, teachers know they can’t talk about their personal religion in school, but officials aren’t going after them in the same way as in God’s Not Dead 2. 

Many Films in This Genre is Just Bad: 

The God’s Not Dead films are terrible. Many of the cheap period films are just boring. These low-budget faith-based films are mostly just not great, which no matter how devote you are is going to turn you off after a while. Many of the films set in present day are pretty bad for the reasons previously mentioned, while the period films just do not commit to their source material. Turning the story of Samson into a PG-13 film was never going to be embraced. Many of the stories fail to consider these period films need the ugliness from the actual stories, including the sex, violence, and the actual sinful actions. These films are made for cheap and they feel cheap because usually the people in front and behind the camera have no vision beyond exaggerating the ‘faith’ part of the faith-based films. 

How Can Faith-Based Films Be Saved: 

Though I seem to really be down on this genre, this genre is technically in trouble. Since 2014, there have usually been one or two faith-based films that can get actual good reviews and/or have a good box office run (which usually means getting over about $10 million domestically). And those films are the ones we should be leaning into more. My two favorite examples are The Star from last year and the recent I Can Only Imagine. Last year’s The Star was an animated film that focused on the animals around the birth of Jesus. While the film was only OK, it did remind me of the Veggie Tales films that are so popular for younger children, and honestly its much better than most generic religious films released in the past few years. The other example is I Can Only Imagine, which is blowing up the box office with $48 million domestically so far on a $7 million budget. The film revolves around arguably the most popular Christian rock song and has clearly struck a cord with both devote audiences and those just fans of the song. It also helps that even critics like it well enough. The point is, making movies that only revolve around boring period dramas and unrealistic present pieces are not the ones making the money right now. 

More so, just making a good film should always be on the forefront of people’s minds, and to do that you need good directors and good actors in these films. I like Miracles From Heaven well enough only because Jennifer Garner is great in it.  All Saints, which did not do great numbers last year, was good because John Corbett was the lead. The Everly Brothers who directed I Can Only Imagine also made the religious-sports drama film Woodlawn, which was also pretty good. The idea that making these films for little money doesn’t work when you have actors in them that plainly are good, or uninspired directors behind the camera.