Jesus Christ Box Office Superstar: Why Faith-Based Films Are Dominating This Easter
(ANALYSIS) People might disagree whether Jesus is King, but he certainly is ruling the box office this Easter season.
For the past three weeks, there’s been a Jesus movie in the top 10 at the U.S. box office. Three weeks ago, “The Chosen: The Last Supper Part 1” was No. 3 on the list. Last week, “The Chosen: The Last Supper Part 2” also reached No. 3, and “Part 1” came in at No. 7. This past weekend, the Angel Studios-backed animated film “The King of Kings” was No. 2, and “The Chosen: The Last Supper Part 3” was No. 6, while “Part 2” was No. 10.
These aren’t the only Jesus films this season either. The Chris Tomlin-produced “The Last Supper” was also in the top 10 in its first two weeks following its release in March.
READ: 5 Jesus Movies You Should Watch This Easter
America has always been a Christian-majority nation, so it’s no surprise that Jesus movies like “The Robe” and “King of Kings” were once a Hollywood staple. These died out after the bad reception from Christians to “The Last Temptation of Christ” — only to be revived again with Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.”
Each generation’s portrayals of Jesus says something about the priorities of the artists and audiences that make and engage with them. And this latest batch is no different.
The Jesus in Tomlin’s “The Last Supper” showcases the Christian community’s commitment to Scriptural fidelity — often without the need for artistic excellence. Film producer Michael Scott over and over emphasized in interviews the importance of Biblical faithfulness.
“We brought in theologians and pastors to look at the film,” he said. “We even did some reshoots to make sure what we put on screen was an accurate reflection of the Word of God. I think that’s so important, because the Word is powerful. It doesn’t need to be changed.”
But the film was also the worst-reviewed version of Jesus this year and the least financially successful. This shouldn’t be a surprise. As I noted in my review, while this Jesus was faithful to the Bible, it was also lifeless. In this way, this represents the critiques of Western Christianity from Christians like Makoto Fujimura in “Art + Faith,” Tyler Staton in “The Familiar Stranger” or Rod Dreher in “Living in Wonder”: That it’s a religion of all head and no heart, one that wants to know what’s true and false and not what’s beautiful.
Robert K. Johnson, in his book “Reel Spirituality,” argues that this has its roots in the Protestant suspicion of images rather than words leading us to truth. If there’s one version of Jesus that shows most people want a Jesus that engages both the heart and the head, it’s “The Chosen.” The Jesus of “The Chosen” series does successfully engage with the truth and beauty — both the head and heart — of the Christian faith, which is a big reason for its massive success at the box office this Lent.
One of the most consistent praises of the series is how it balances portraying Jesus' godliness with his humanity. The film director Paul Schrader said of the show: “At its center is Jesus, not the divine superhero, but the Rabbi from Nazareth.” The American evangelist Greg Laurie praised Dallas Jenkins and the writers for “conveying Jesus and His disciples as real, down-to-earth people.
“They’ve got unique personalities like you and me,” Laurie said, particularly highlighting the scene between Jesus and Nicodemus, reenacting their meeting from the Gospels in Season 1. “It wasn’t just two actors reciting verses from John 3. It was two real people having a real conversation about life-changing spiritual matters.”
YouTuber Jeremy Jahns actually spelled it out beautifully in his review of “The Chosen: The Last Supper Part 1”: “The thing I always look for in stories of Jesus is the balance between the man and the divinity.” He used the old “Jesus of Nazareth” movies as an example of getting the divine right — but not the human and the old “Jesus 2000” as scrapping the divine to make Him just “a cool guy.”
“And I feel like Jonathan Roumie does a good job of being both sides of that coin,” Jahns added.
The level of artistry to combine core theological truths (such as the divinity-humanity combination of Jesus) with profound artistry is one of the reasons why “The Chosen” has been so successful. It’s also why the filmmakers in Jenkins’ circle — like Jon Erwin, Andy Erwin and Jon Gunn — are getting lucrative deals to make faith-based projects with production companies like Lionsgate (which distribution deals to Kingdom Story Company films such as “Jesus Revolution” and “The Unbreakable Boy”) and Amazon (which brought to screen “House of David” and will release the upcoming seasons of “The Chosen”) for home viewers.
Hollywood has long seen the potential of the faith-based market, but didn’t understand the audience well enough to make films that appealed to them. Now that Christians are getting good enough at doing it themselves, mainstream studios are more than happy to partner with them for a mutually beneficial future.
The Jesus of “King of Kings” is the one that we teach to our children. Christians are disproportionately family-oriented among Americans, and it’s therefore natural that Christians would like depictions of Jesus that they can show to their kids. “King of Kings” follows in the tradition of the Jesus of Sunday school in churches, of Veggie Tales and picture book Bibles. These depictions of Jesus focus on the kindness and gentleness of Jesus in a way that Christian moms are more comfortable with their kids seeing.
As Nancy Pearcy has written about, this focus on the “meek and mild” Jesus particularly grew in Christianity during the Industrial Revolution as Christian moms became the dominant demographic within the American church. We see this with “King of Kings” where the boy wants to be King Arthur because he’s got a sword and vanquishes his enemies. But by the end, his father has taught him to love Jesus more for being kind and nice.
“King of Kings” represents a unique space in the future of faith-based films: Children’s animation. Animation has historically been cost prohibitive for low-budget filmmakers like those in the faith-based film industry. But with these filmmakers attracting more money and animation becoming cheaper (last year’s best animated feature winner was made independently), we’re likely to see more animation in the future. Indeed, “The Chosen Adventures” (which focuses on the kids who met Jesus in the show’s second episode) and “The Light of the World” are animated children’s projects set for release soon.
As the success of the recent “A Minecraft Movie” reveals, there’s a lot to be gained by faith-based films entering the children’s space. But there are challenges, too. Most kids movies are made for kids with parents as secondary. But faith-based films are made for parents with the kids as secondary. So it remains to be seen if it will take 20 years for faith-based kids animation to reach its version of “The Chosen” where it finds the right balance.
America loves movies, and it loves Jesus. As a result, it’s s safe to say both will be with us for a very long time. You might say it’s Jesus’ world, we’re just living in it. That’s true to Christians at all times. But for now it’s also true when it comes to dominating the U.S. box office.
Joseph Holmes is an award-nominated filmmaker and culture critic living in New York. He is co-host of the podcast “The Overthinkers” and its companion website theoverthinkersjournal.world, where he discusses art, culture and faith with his fellow overthinkers. His other work and contact info can be found at josephholmesstudios.com.