{"id":2534,"date":"2005-10-25T10:14:00","date_gmt":"2005-10-25T10:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/10\/black-religious-films-on-the-rise\/"},"modified":"2005-10-25T10:14:00","modified_gmt":"2005-10-25T10:14:00","slug":"black-religious-films-on-the-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/10\/black-religious-films-on-the-rise.html","title":{"rendered":"Black religious films on the rise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A couple months ago<\/a>, I posted a link to an article of mine in which someone compared the \u201cblaxploitation\u201d films of some years back to what he called the \u201cGodsploitation\u201d movies coming out these days. Now, based on this report<\/a> from the Gannett News Service, it looks like the two \u201csploitations\u201d may be coming together:<\/span><\/p>\n

When Tyler Perry\u2019s film adaptation of his play \u201cDiary of a Mad Black Woman\u201d opened earlier this year and pulled in $22.7 million in its first weekend despite less-than-stellar reviews, jaws dropped. Almost immediately, film studios began looking for something else that could bring what many consider to be a long-ignored audience into movie megaplexes \u2014 religious blacks.<\/p>\n

No fewer than five similar-themed projects are on the horizon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gospel\u201d is the most recent movie that focuses on faith and spirituality, what happens when you lose it and how life changes for the better when you get it back. The film, which only cost $4 million to make, originally was slated for video, but after \u201cDiary\u201d took in more than $50 million at the box office, Sony\/Screen Gems decided to put \u201cThe Gospel\u201d on the big screen.<\/p>\n

According to boxofficeguru.com, \u201cThe Gospel\u201d opened on just 969 screens its first weekend and raked in an impressive $7.5 million.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

FWIW, I love how the article notes that the films blazing the trail in this new mini-genre are successful \u201cdespite less-than-stellar reviews\u201d. If I were a member of the target audience, I\u2019d be worried.<\/p>\n

Alas, as Canada is more secularized than the States and has a much smaller black population, we almost never get either the independently-made religious niche movies or the \u201curban\u201d films that occasionally pop up on the weekly top-ten lists.<\/p>\n

Diary of a Mad Black Woman<\/i> opened here a few weeks after<\/i> it had made its mark on the States \u2014 despite being produced by a Canadian company! (I.e., Lions Gate Films, which was named after a bridge<\/a> here in Vancouver.) But at least it did open here, which is more than one could say for many other \u201curban\u201d films.<\/p>\n

Ditto the original Left Behind<\/i>, which opened here a few weeks after<\/i> it opened in the States, despite being produced by a studio in Toronto. That\u2019s certainly more than one could say for the Omega Code<\/i> movies, or Joshua<\/i>, etc., etc., which never played here.<\/p>\n

Note, BTW, that Screen Gems is the same studio that recently produced The Exorcism of Emily Rose<\/a><\/i>; and Sony Home Entertainment is the company that produced the new Left Behind<\/a><\/i> movie. Coincidence, or evidence of a new corporate policy?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple months ago, I posted a link to an article of mine in which someone compared the \u201cblaxploitation\u201d films of some years back to what he called the \u201cGodsploitation\u201d movies coming out these days. Now, based on this report from the Gannett News Service, it looks like the two \u201csploitations\u201d may be coming together: […]<\/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-2534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBlack religious films on the rise<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A couple months ago, I posted a link to an article of mine in which someone compared the "blaxploitation" films of some years back to what he called the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/10\/black-religious-films-on-the-rise.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Black religious films on the rise\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A couple months ago, I posted a link to an article of mine in which someone compared the "blaxploitation" films of some years back to what he called the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/10\/black-religious-films-on-the-rise.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-10-25T10:14:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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