WP: Sony Pictures Opens Film in Church

Welcome to George Bush's America.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/20/AR2005102002186.html

Coming Soon to a Church Near You
Hollywood Skips Movie Theaters With 3,200-Screen Opening

By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 21, 2005; Page A01

"Left Behind: World at War," the third movie based on the Left Behind series of novels about Armageddon and the Second Coming of Jesus, will open tonight on 3,200 screens across the country. But it will not be shown in a single commercial theater.

Although more than 70 million copies of the novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins have been sold, the previous two movies flopped at the box office. So, this time, Sony Pictures Entertainment is leaving the multiplexes behind. "World at War" will break out exclusively in churches.

Marketing executives say the decision is part of a major trend. The entertainment industry has discovered there is power, power, product-moving power in selling movies, books and music through churches -- particularly the suburban megachurches that draw thousands of well-heeled worshipers.

That poorly acted crap would never survive in a multiplex.

I saw the preview and the preview appears to be better than the film itself. And I have no problem with them opening a movie in churches. If that's what they want to do than hey no problem(s) with me.

taking a page directly from Mel Gibson on this one.

"Marketing executives say the decision is part of a major trend. The entertainment industry has discovered there is power, power, product-moving power in selling movies, books and music through churches -- particularly the suburban megachurches that draw thousands of well-heeled worshipers."

This is not Christianity, it is the focus-grouped mall Christianity. Pretty much on the level of the moneychangers in the temple.

The Christian Retailers Association. You wouldn't believe what these people will sell to their suckers.. I mean followers. Rapture kits, Scripture Candy, Movies, Books, Video Games, CD's. It was pretty sickening seeing the extent of Christian Greed. Some DU'ers might remember it. I made a post about it and gave away too much information about where I was. Some Freep saw it, called the Convention Center it was taking place at and said I threatened to blow the place up. I got kicked out. It was freaky at the time but it's one of those things that seems funny after time passes.

Having those items is nice and all that but it's just that: items. It's really sad how people get so caught up in material matters. Jesus was constantly talking about giving to people and not being caught up in material items and how this world isn't our home etc.

It's big marketing. This is why I think it's just a fad now in the country. In a few years wait and see how many people are still in Christianity. Do all these people really believe what they do or just following a fad cause all their friends and family are? Know what I mean?

And that something is "no one outside your group gives a shit about your idea of entertainment."

Here's the problem Sony faces. If they don't make some Christian movies, the company will be declared anti-Christian; if they make Christian movies, their exhibitors will go broke showing them because the percentage of Americans who love Jesus so much they go to church seven days a week is very low. And, unfortunately for the Left Behind bunch, their market is people who go to church every day. That's it.

Let's look at that "70 million copies" number for a second. That's for the whole Left Behind series--which contains twelve books. If everyone who bought Left Behind subsequently bought the other eleven books, LaHaye sold less than six million copies of each book. That's a bunch of books, but there's a very substantial difference between selling six million of a title and selling 70 million of it. In reality, probably 20 million people bought Left Behind and two million bought each of the other eleven.

So let's say 10 million people in all America want to see the new Left Behind movie. If I was the guy at Sony who was in charge of booking theatres for the opening weekend, I'd have to go to every multiplex owner in America and tell him, "we want you to book a movie you're going to sell 500 tickets for." I could not do it. I could not justify wasting the film stock to make a print of a movie that's only going to get 500 butts in seats.

The ideal for this movie is what Sony's doing: burning it straight to DVD, sending it to churches and letting them play it on the rectory TV.

I know one of those books was the top selling fiction book in the world when it came out in 2001 (9/11 fears I guess.) Also, the DVDs of these movies have somehow sold pretty well, despite it being a huge flop in theaters.

The phenomenon really scares me that it's been going on this long. Didn't this stuff start in 1995?

I read all of the books out of morbid curiosity I'll admit. They're horrible books, but it was interesting seeing how the writers would top themselves with bigger and bigger earth plagues until it finally culminated with Jesus returning to earth and making all of those who didn't believe in him or choose him literally......explode. Yes...explode. They were ripped apart and exploded into an almost pornographical description of blood and gore.

A lot of fundies won't go to theatres. Apparently, playing a secular film on a projector ruins it so that religious films won't play right after that, or the exhibitors don't display proper Christian values...or something. Understand that they'd go to a theatre if all it played was Christian films. Unfortunately, there aren't enough Christian films in current release to keep a Christian-only theatre in operation. (The solution for that: build a small house with a Barco projector, and play DVDs of Christian movies. In a large-enough city, you'd make good money. There are a LOT of Christian movies out there, and many of them are good. Unfortunately, the good Christian movies were made during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Tell me you wouldn't pay $6 to get into a showing of Heston's The Ten Commandments on a 50-foot screen in a gilded theatre, whether you were fundie, religious, neutral or just liked good movies.)

Either that, or they just don't like sitting between the screaming kid and the five teenagers with cell phones, and they're using Jesus as an excuse for not having to put up with it.

Seriously? Left Behind movies are exactly the kind of movies that do well on DVD. A fundamentalist can spend $25 for a Left Behind DVD and play it over and over again. Lots of good entertainment value there for only $25. Releasing it in churches is a stroke of genius, man; bring in a Barco and a mega screen, play the film a dozen times to "rave reviews from audiences," and you've got quotes from preachers to put on the back of the DVD package. If you were a fundie, you'd put more credence in a capsule review from someone with "Rev." in front of his name than from some film reviewer.

In that insular little community of true believers, this film is going to be a smash hit.

Oh, I better explain The Passion because it's the only Jesus film in the past couple of decades that made any significant money outside the religious community. If it wasn't two hours of Jesus getting the shit kicked out of him, it wouldn't have made a nickel. People from the non-religious community didn't go to see the religious message, they went to see the movie that was more violent than Robocop.

They probably don't want to waste tons of money in marketing and than have not enough people see it to make up for all the money they'd lose.
So this is probably the cheap way for them. It's all about the moolah.

wonder how many of these churches are willing to accept moon as the messiah (which he claims to be).

more moonie friends:
http://www.politicalfriendster.com/showPerson.php?id=1370&name=Rev-Sun-Myung-Moon

After he left his church (Methodists?) because they told him starting a war in Iraq was a bad idea, he hooked up with a gang of thieves posing as ministers. IIRC LaHaye, Falwell and Robertson are his new spiritual advisors now.