Box office: Christmas with The Chosen extends its run to Christmas

There’s still some room at the box office for Mary and Joseph this week.

Christmas with The Chosen: The Messengers — a spin-off of the hit streaming series The Chosen, featuring over a dozen musical artists and a brand new episode of the series — is on track to gross another $1.3 million in theatres this weekend.

That’s a drop of nearly 70% from the $4.2 million the special grossed in its first weekend, but such drops are not unusual for front-loaded “event movies” — and in this case, the film wasn’t even supposed to be playing this weekend when it opened last week.

When the special was first announced in October, the original plan was to show it in theatres for two nights only, December 1-2. The tickets for those shows sold out so quickly that the special’s theatrical run was extended until last Friday, December 10.

It wasn’t until last Wednesday that the producers announced the special would be playing in theatres throughout the entire weekend — and an e-mail they sent this morning said the film will now be playing in theatres “All day, everyday through Christmas.”

So casual viewers may not have known that the special was still playing in theatres.

The decline in box-office revenue could also be partly due to the fact that the special is now being shown in schools and churches too, plus it will be making its online streaming debut tonight — so fans of The Chosen now have many ways to see the special.

Here is where the special will be streaming tonight, at 5pm PST / 8pm EST:

Christmas with The Chosen has earned $13.4 million in theatres so far. If it can earn another $4.2 million or so, it will pass 2018’s Paul, Apostle of Christ to become the top-grossing Bible movie in North America since 2017’s animated Christmas movie The Star.

Also worth noting: Christmas with The Chosen played in only 1,700 theatres last week and dropped to 1,450 theatres this week, and it has outgrossed a number of films that had much wider releases and/or buzzier hype this year — films like The Last Duel ($10.9 million in 3,065 theatres), Last Night in Soho ($10.1 million in 3,016 theatres), Belfast ($6.5 million in 1,255 theatres) and Spencer ($6.9 million in 1,265 theatres).

There is also a good chance that Christmas with The Chosen will become the top-grossing film to play in fewer than 2,000 theatres since the pandemic began almost two years ago. The only films ahead of it right now are last year’s Monster Hunter ($15.2 million in 1,817 theatres) and this year’s The French Dispatch ($15.6 million in 1,225 theatres).

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Here is how Christmas with The Chosen ranks at the North American box office next to other Bible-themed movies that have played in theatres over the past 40 years:

1. 2004 — The Passion of the Christ — $370.8 million
2. 1998 — The Prince of Egypt — $101.4 million
3. 2014 — Noah — $101.2 million
4. 2014 — Exodus: Gods and Kings — $65 million
5. 2014 — Son of God — $59.7 million
6. 2017 — The Shack — $57.4 million
7. 2009 — Year One — $43.3 million
8. 2017 — The Star — $40.9 million
9. 2006 — The Nativity Story — $37.6 million
10. 2016 — Risen — $36.9 million
11. 1981 — History of the World, Part I — $31.7 million
12. 2016 — Hail, Caesar! — $30.5 million
13. 2016 — Ben-Hur — $26.4 million
14. 2002 — Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie — $25.6 million
15. 1979 — Monty Python’s Life of Brian — $20 million
16. 2018 — Paul, Apostle of Christ — $17.6 million
17. 1980 — Wholly Moses! — $14.2 million
18. 2021 — Christmas with The Chosen: The Messengers — $13.4 Million
19. 2006 — One Night with the King — $13.4 million
20. 1988 — The Last Temptation of Christ — $8.4 million
21. 2016 — The Young Messiah — $6.5 million
22. 1985 — King David — $5.1 million
23. 2018 — Samson — $4.7 million
24. 2003 — The Gospel of John — $4.1 million
25. 2007 — The Ten Commandments — $952,820
26. 2018 — Mary Magdalene — $124,741

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The Chosen can be streamed in full via VidAngel or the show’s app (Android | Apple).

I interviewed co-writer/director Dallas Jenkins in December 2019 (after Season 1 came out) and in May 2021 (during Season 2; we spoke after Episode 5 came out).

I interviewed executive producer Derral Eves about Christmas with The Chosen.

I reviewed Season 1 of The Chosen and Christmas with The Chosen: The Messengers.

I have also written detailed analyses of each episode of Season 1:
zero | one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eight | scripture index