![\"\"](\"https:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/x\/blogger\/7991\/933\/1600\/96793\/nativitystory-birth.jpg\")
<\/a>Variety<\/a><\/i> reported yesterday that The Nativity Story<\/a><\/i> is doing so-so business in North America, but virtually nothing overseas:<\/span><\/p>\n
The $35 million New Line pic opened the weekend of Dec. 1 to an unimpressive $7.8 million at 3,083 playdates, finishing a distant fourth to the third frames of \u201cHappy Feet\u201d and \u201cCasino Royale\u201d and the soph sesh of \u201cDeja Vu.\u201d . . .<\/p>\n
Since then, however, \u201cNativity\u201d has salvaged its performance with decent holdover numbers. The second frame saw a decline of 27% to $5.7 million, followed by a drop of only 19% to $4.7 million in its third, even though the film\u2019s screen count dropped by more than 500. In both cases, the hold was the best for a pic in the top 10.<\/p>\n
And weekday biz has surged this week with $2.5 million in three days via gains of 36%, 41% and 52%, lifting the domestic cume to $25.6 million as of Wednesday. With Christmas on Monday, this weekend\u2019s likely to see enough of an upward bump to propel \u201cThe Nativity Story\u201d to about $40 million by the end of its Stateside run, particularly with viewers from group sales still waiting to see the pic.<\/p>\n
Oversees, it\u2019s been a different story, with foreign grosses totaling a meager $5.7 million as of Wednesday. As is typical of its financing strategy, New Line sold off the foreign territories to an array of distribs \u2014 none of whom are seeing anything but dreary results, even from heavily Catholic markets. . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The film\u2019s underwhelming box-office performance is a \u201cserious setback\u201d, according to \u201cDr.\u201d Ted Baehr at WorldNetDaily.com<\/a>. Baehr, who often releases surveys<\/a> asserting that films with \u201cChristian\u201d values outperform \u201canti-Christian\u201d films, now raises the alarm and says that studios will go back to making low-cost, high-profit R-rated movies like Borat<\/a><\/i> and Jackass: Number Two<\/a><\/i>, now that The Nativity Story<\/i> has turned out to be a flop.<\/p>\n
Other conservatives might disagree with Baehr, though. Victor Morton, a Catholic who dubs himself the \u2018Rightwing film geek<\/a>\u2018, called the film \u201ca rote Christmas pageant so lifeless, so lacking in dramatic juice\u201d and said it \u201chas all the faults of \u2018Contemporary Christian Cinema<\/a> (Music)\u2019 \u2014 and without the excuses.\u201d In other words, if this film had been a hit, and had spawned imitators, it might have been a \u201cserious setback\u201d in another<\/i> sort of way.<\/p>\n
Still, it will be interesting to see what lessons New Line and other studios take from this experience. Already, the Hollywood Reporter<\/a><\/i>, via Reuters<\/a>, reports that New Line has given up on the awards campaigns that are typical for this time of year, and is promoting its tentpole for the next<\/i> holiday season \u2014 a little flick called The Golden Compass<\/a><\/i>, which happens to be the first installment of a fantasy trilogy that celebrates the death of God.<\/p>\n
Matt Page<\/a> at the Bible Films Blog has some comments on this, too, and he links to a handful of scholarly interpretations of the film, including those by Mark<\/a> Goodacre<\/a>, Scot McKnight<\/a> and Ben Witherington III<\/a>; I am also aware of one by Paul V.M. Flesher<\/a>. I haven\u2019t had time to read any of these commentaries in-depth, yet, but I hope to soon \u2014 while the movie still has some<\/i> currency!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Variety reported yesterday that The Nativity Story is doing so-so business in North America, but virtually nothing overseas: The $35 million New Line pic opened the weekend of Dec. 1 to an unimpressive $7.8 million at 3,083 playdates, finishing a distant fourth to the third frames of \u201cHappy Feet\u201d and \u201cCasino Royale\u201d and the soph […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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