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.
Either way, the uplift business was having tough time until Top Gun: Maverick broke through, at the strictly secular level, last year. The last explicitly religious film to top $40 million at the box office appears to have been Breakthrough,...
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.
Either way, the uplift business was having tough time until Top Gun: Maverick broke through, at the strictly secular level, last year. The last explicitly religious film to top $40 million at the box office appears to have been Breakthrough,...
- 3/19/2023
- by Michael Cieply
- Deadline Film + TV
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 tied for best family movie at the 30th Annual Movieguide Awards, which honor “the best of family-friendly movies and television programs and spiritually uplifting entertainment.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power won the award for best mature audience television, and Resistance: 1942 won the award for best mature audience movies.
The honors also include the top award of the Grace Prizes for Most Inspiring Performances in Movies & TV, which are given to an actor or actress for the best performance in a movie or a television program. Candace Cameron Bure won the Grace for TV for A Christmas…Present, while Pat Boone won the Grace for movies for The Mulligan.
The Kairos Prize announced that Alice Bowden and David Hyde (Hope From the Ashes) were the winners of the 2022-23 scriptwriting competition that focuses exclusively on uplifting screenplays.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power won the award for best mature audience television, and Resistance: 1942 won the award for best mature audience movies.
The honors also include the top award of the Grace Prizes for Most Inspiring Performances in Movies & TV, which are given to an actor or actress for the best performance in a movie or a television program. Candace Cameron Bure won the Grace for TV for A Christmas…Present, while Pat Boone won the Grace for movies for The Mulligan.
The Kairos Prize announced that Alice Bowden and David Hyde (Hope From the Ashes) were the winners of the 2022-23 scriptwriting competition that focuses exclusively on uplifting screenplays.
- 2/27/2023
- by Kimberly Nordyke
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
WWE has announced its annual “SummerSlam” will take place at Detroit’s Ford Field on Aug. 5.
The announcement marks the first return of “SummerSlam” to Michigan in 30 years and the first WWE event to take place at Ford Field since “WrestleMania” in 2007.
“Landing WWE ‘SummerSlam’ at Ford Field is a signature win for Detroit and continues the momentum of the Detroit Sports Commission in attracting major sporting events to the region,” said Dsc executive director Dave Beachnau in a statement. “Metro Detroit enjoys a special place in WWE history and has produced many iconic moments. Thank you to the entire WWE family for entrusting us with this incredible opportunity, and we look forward to delivering a first-class experience.”
Tickets for the event will be available for purchase April 15 on Ticketmaster.com.
Also in today’s television news:
New Hires
Two new multi-platform reporters are joining ABC News, according to an announcement today from Wendy Fisher,...
The announcement marks the first return of “SummerSlam” to Michigan in 30 years and the first WWE event to take place at Ford Field since “WrestleMania” in 2007.
“Landing WWE ‘SummerSlam’ at Ford Field is a signature win for Detroit and continues the momentum of the Detroit Sports Commission in attracting major sporting events to the region,” said Dsc executive director Dave Beachnau in a statement. “Metro Detroit enjoys a special place in WWE history and has produced many iconic moments. Thank you to the entire WWE family for entrusting us with this incredible opportunity, and we look forward to delivering a first-class experience.”
Tickets for the event will be available for purchase April 15 on Ticketmaster.com.
Also in today’s television news:
New Hires
Two new multi-platform reporters are joining ABC News, according to an announcement today from Wendy Fisher,...
- 2/8/2023
- by Julia MacCary and Katie Reul
- Variety Film + TV
Terry Crews is set to host the 30th annual Movieguide Awards, where Chrissy Metz will give a musical performance.
The awards, which honor “the best of family-friendly movies and television programs and spiritually uplifting entertainment,” will be handed out at a Feb. 10 ceremony taking place at the Avalon Theater in Hollywood that will air on UPtv on Feb. 26.
This will mark the third time Crews has hosted the Movieguide Awards. Metz, meanwhile, will perform in celebration of the release of When I Talk To God, I Talk About You, an inspirational children’s book she wrote with Bradley Collins.
Presenters at the ceremony will include Candace Cameron Bure, Paula Abdul, Kate Flannery, Kathy Ireland, Bruce Davison, Haylie Duff, Rob Meyes, Tiffany Daniels, Feny Rokpthavana, Reagan To, Kristi Murdoch, Jonathan Roumie, Jason Cook and Michelle Morgan.
“We are thrilled to celebrate inspirational movies, streaming, and television programs in person this year,...
The awards, which honor “the best of family-friendly movies and television programs and spiritually uplifting entertainment,” will be handed out at a Feb. 10 ceremony taking place at the Avalon Theater in Hollywood that will air on UPtv on Feb. 26.
This will mark the third time Crews has hosted the Movieguide Awards. Metz, meanwhile, will perform in celebration of the release of When I Talk To God, I Talk About You, an inspirational children’s book she wrote with Bradley Collins.
Presenters at the ceremony will include Candace Cameron Bure, Paula Abdul, Kate Flannery, Kathy Ireland, Bruce Davison, Haylie Duff, Rob Meyes, Tiffany Daniels, Feny Rokpthavana, Reagan To, Kristi Murdoch, Jonathan Roumie, Jason Cook and Michelle Morgan.
“We are thrilled to celebrate inspirational movies, streaming, and television programs in person this year,...
- 1/26/2023
- by Kimberly Nordyke
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Top Gun: Maverick, Andor and Dolly Parton are among the nominees for the 30th annual Movieguide Awards, which honor “the best of family-friendly movies and television programs and spiritually uplifting entertainment.”
The Top Gun sequel will compete for best mature audience movie along with Father Stu: Reborn, Jurassic World: Dominion, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris and Uncharted.
Meanwhile, the five films up for best family movie are The Chosen Season 3: Episode 1 & 2, Lyle, Lyle Crocodile, Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Sonic The Hedgehog 2.
On the TV side, Andor will compete for best mature audience television along with Blood and Treasure, Blue Bloods, The Lord of the Rings: The Power of the Ring and Styled With Love.
Country music stars also were represented on the TV side with Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas and Reba McEntire: My Chains Are Gone landing multiple noms.
The Top Gun sequel will compete for best mature audience movie along with Father Stu: Reborn, Jurassic World: Dominion, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris and Uncharted.
Meanwhile, the five films up for best family movie are The Chosen Season 3: Episode 1 & 2, Lyle, Lyle Crocodile, Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Sonic The Hedgehog 2.
On the TV side, Andor will compete for best mature audience television along with Blood and Treasure, Blue Bloods, The Lord of the Rings: The Power of the Ring and Styled With Love.
Country music stars also were represented on the TV side with Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas and Reba McEntire: My Chains Are Gone landing multiple noms.
- 1/23/2023
- by Kimberly Nordyke
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Candace Cameron Bure and her daughter, Natasha Bure, have signed on to host the Movieguide Awards, which are set to take place Feb. 8 at the Universal Hilton Hollywood and will air later in the month on Hallmark Channel.
"We are excited to have our longtime friends Candace and Natasha to host the Movieguide Awards this year," said Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and publisher of Movieguide. "A few years ago, they were presenters and we knew it wouldn't be long until they were taking center stage. We're thrilled and honored!"
The Movieguide Awards honors the top films ...
"We are excited to have our longtime friends Candace and Natasha to host the Movieguide Awards this year," said Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and publisher of Movieguide. "A few years ago, they were presenters and we knew it wouldn't be long until they were taking center stage. We're thrilled and honored!"
The Movieguide Awards honors the top films ...
- 1/23/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Candace Cameron Bure and her daughter, Natasha Bure, have signed on to host the Movieguide Awards, which are set to take place Feb. 8 at the Universal Hilton Hollywood and will air later in the month on Hallmark Channel.
"We are excited to have our longtime friends Candace and Natasha to host the Movieguide Awards this year," said Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and publisher of Movieguide. "A few years ago, they were presenters and we knew it wouldn't be long until they were taking center stage. We're thrilled and honored!"
The Movieguide Awards honors the top films ...
"We are excited to have our longtime friends Candace and Natasha to host the Movieguide Awards this year," said Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and publisher of Movieguide. "A few years ago, they were presenters and we knew it wouldn't be long until they were taking center stage. We're thrilled and honored!"
The Movieguide Awards honors the top films ...
- 1/23/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
There are some hardcore Christians out there that aren't big fans of fantasy films that revolve around magic and sorcery. I remember way back in the day when some of these people were coming down on the game Dungeons & Dragons. Over the years they would speak out against other fantasy properties like Harry Potter. Now one Christian film critic named Dr. Ted Baehr has come out slamming Marvel's Doctor Strange:
[Doctor Strange is] a dangerous introduction to demonic occult deception. ... The Bible clearly warns against the kind of occult practices and sorcery the hero in this movie learns to do, in Deuteronomy 18:9-12 and Galatians 5:20. Also in the movie, the hero's New Age, occult guru teaches there may be no afterlife, that death is truly the end, and that this is a good thing.
If that's what Baehr believes, fine. I'm not going to bash anyone for their beliefs, I...
[Doctor Strange is] a dangerous introduction to demonic occult deception. ... The Bible clearly warns against the kind of occult practices and sorcery the hero in this movie learns to do, in Deuteronomy 18:9-12 and Galatians 5:20. Also in the movie, the hero's New Age, occult guru teaches there may be no afterlife, that death is truly the end, and that this is a good thing.
If that's what Baehr believes, fine. I'm not going to bash anyone for their beliefs, I...
- 11/3/2016
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
There's a lot at stake with the release this Friday of "Noah," and not just for the filmmakers or the studio that sunk a reported $160 million into the film.
In a year when Hollywood is releasing several Bible-inspired movies, "Noah" has become the test case for a number of issues -- whether Hollywood can earn the trust of fundamentalist Christians (and whether it's worth risking money and controversy even to try), whether it's possible to make big-budget spectacles that please both religious viewers and secular action-film fans, and whether directors can make Bible-themed movies that adhere to doctrine without compromising artistically or making dull propaganda.
It would be easy to see this saga as a story of just two players. On the one side is Hollywood, represented here by "Noah" studio Paramount, which would like to attract Christian viewers, and which has practically bent over backward to do so, testing...
In a year when Hollywood is releasing several Bible-inspired movies, "Noah" has become the test case for a number of issues -- whether Hollywood can earn the trust of fundamentalist Christians (and whether it's worth risking money and controversy even to try), whether it's possible to make big-budget spectacles that please both religious viewers and secular action-film fans, and whether directors can make Bible-themed movies that adhere to doctrine without compromising artistically or making dull propaganda.
It would be easy to see this saga as a story of just two players. On the one side is Hollywood, represented here by "Noah" studio Paramount, which would like to attract Christian viewers, and which has practically bent over backward to do so, testing...
- 3/25/2014
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
"Duck Dynasty," "Shark Tank" and "The Bible" were among the big TV winners at the 22nd Annual Movieguide Faith & Values Awards on Friday (Feb. 7). But what exactly are these awards?
Organized by Movieguide publisher Ted Baehr, the Faith & Values Awards reward spiritual seriousness in Hollywood by analyzing films and TV shows according to biblical theology and negative factors (worldviews that are pagan, occult, humanist or derived from Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a Genevan philosopher).
The ceremony, held at the Hilton Universal City, was filmed for a one-hour Reelz Channel special set to air March 1 as counter-programming to the Oscars. Below is the full list of film and TV series who were honored at the event.
$100,000 Epiphany Prize for Most Inspiring Television Program of 2013: "The Bible"
$100,000 Epiphany Prize for Most Inspiring Movie of 2013: "Grace Unplugged"
Faith & Freedom Award - Television Winner: "Duck Dynasty" -- "Till Duck Do Us Part"
Faith & Freedom...
Organized by Movieguide publisher Ted Baehr, the Faith & Values Awards reward spiritual seriousness in Hollywood by analyzing films and TV shows according to biblical theology and negative factors (worldviews that are pagan, occult, humanist or derived from Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a Genevan philosopher).
The ceremony, held at the Hilton Universal City, was filmed for a one-hour Reelz Channel special set to air March 1 as counter-programming to the Oscars. Below is the full list of film and TV series who were honored at the event.
$100,000 Epiphany Prize for Most Inspiring Television Program of 2013: "The Bible"
$100,000 Epiphany Prize for Most Inspiring Movie of 2013: "Grace Unplugged"
Faith & Freedom Award - Television Winner: "Duck Dynasty" -- "Till Duck Do Us Part"
Faith & Freedom...
- 2/9/2014
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Chicago – If the Koch brothers have proven anything over the last several months, it’s that money speaks louder than the truth. Facts may not be for sale, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be buried. At a time when more information is available to the general public than ever before, an alarming number of Americans are content in remaining blissfully uninformed.
The 90-minute propaganda stunt, “2016: Obama’s America,” banks on the assumption that audiences are idiots. How else to explain its crackpot corroboration of unsubstantiated gobbledygook masquerading as an incendiary examination of the 44th U.S. president? The film isn’t really about Barack Obama at all. It’s about author/co-director/narrator/star Dinesh D’Souza and his own warped view of America, which seems to exist entirely within an alternate reality completely detached from our own. Perhaps the man has a future in science fiction.
The 90-minute propaganda stunt, “2016: Obama’s America,” banks on the assumption that audiences are idiots. How else to explain its crackpot corroboration of unsubstantiated gobbledygook masquerading as an incendiary examination of the 44th U.S. president? The film isn’t really about Barack Obama at all. It’s about author/co-director/narrator/star Dinesh D’Souza and his own warped view of America, which seems to exist entirely within an alternate reality completely detached from our own. Perhaps the man has a future in science fiction.
- 10/30/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
“Liberal Hollywood” is practically a redundant epithet in the modern culture wars, crystallized in the dark days of the communist witch hunts of the 1950s and perpetuated in more recent times by extreme right-wing pundits who see the work of the devil in every American movie that doesn’t end with a “U-s-a!” chant. But this week, a conservative movie watchdog organization released a quantitative study appealing to Hollywood’s bottom line. According to MovieGuide, quote-unquote Conservative films averaged more than five times at the box-office than Liberal films in 2011.
It’s not an altogether surprising finding — if a studio...
It’s not an altogether surprising finding — if a studio...
- 2/10/2012
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW.com - PopWatch
Films promoting values such as capitalism and Christianity more profitable than 'liberal' competition, says Movieguide
Films that embody "conservative" values such as capitalism and Christian belief are more likely to prove profitable than those which take a more "liberal" standpoint, according to a Us group called Movieguide, which promotes the former.
Movies from the past year that meet Movieguide's threshold for adhering to "traditional" values include Oscars frontrunners such as Hugo and The Artist, as well as less celebrated fare such as comic book film Thor and Tom Cruise comeback vehicle Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. The organisation will honour the year's top conservative films at a special awards show on Friday to mark 20 years of highlighting the merits of movies with morals. It has produced a special 76-page report on the good, the bad and the ugly of the film universe's past 12 months, which is on sale for $1,000 a...
Films that embody "conservative" values such as capitalism and Christian belief are more likely to prove profitable than those which take a more "liberal" standpoint, according to a Us group called Movieguide, which promotes the former.
Movies from the past year that meet Movieguide's threshold for adhering to "traditional" values include Oscars frontrunners such as Hugo and The Artist, as well as less celebrated fare such as comic book film Thor and Tom Cruise comeback vehicle Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. The organisation will honour the year's top conservative films at a special awards show on Friday to mark 20 years of highlighting the merits of movies with morals. It has produced a special 76-page report on the good, the bad and the ugly of the film universe's past 12 months, which is on sale for $1,000 a...
- 2/8/2012
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
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