{"id":55553,"date":"2017-04-11T10:49:23","date_gmt":"2017-04-11T17:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=55553"},"modified":"2017-04-11T10:49:23","modified_gmt":"2017-04-11T17:49:23","slug":"box-office-case-christ-cracks-top-ten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2017\/04\/box-office-case-christ-cracks-top-ten.html","title":{"rendered":"Box office: The Case for Christ<\/i> cracks the top ten"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"caseforchrist-a\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A film about the Resurrection cracked the top ten on the Palm Sunday weekend.<\/p>\n

The Case for Christ<\/i><\/b>, which tells the story of how a reporter named Lee Strobel<\/a> went from atheism to Christianity after researching the death and resurrection of Jesus, landed in tenth place with $3.9 million between Friday and Sunday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That is the fourth-best opening for a film produced or distributed by Pure Flix<\/a>, behind Woodlawn<\/a><\/i> and the two God\u2019s Not Dead<\/a><\/i> films \u2014 though the new film also had the studio\u2019s fourth-widest release. Pure Flix announced yesterday that it would expand the film\u2019s release from 1,174 theatres to about 1,600 theatres next weekend.<\/p>\n

Two other films had weak debuts in wide release this week.<\/p>\n

Smurfs: The Lost Village<\/i><\/b> landed in third place with $13.2 million \u2014 which is not only the lowest opening of any recent Smurfs<\/i> movie<\/a>, but the lowest opening of any non-Aardman film produced by Sony Pictures Animation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And Going in Style<\/i><\/b>, a remake of a 1979 heist comedy starring Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine, landed in fourth place with $11.9 million \u2014 which is the lowest opening of any of the six films that have co-starred Freeman and Caine (the other five being the Dark Knight<\/a><\/i> trilogy and the two Now You See Me<\/a><\/i> movies).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, The Shack<\/b><\/i> landed in 15th place with $1.1 million in its sixth week.<\/p>\n

The Shack<\/i> had the fourth-best first<\/a> and second weeks<\/a>, the sixth-best third week<\/a>, the seventh-best fourth week<\/a> and the sixth-best fifth week<\/a> of any \u201cfaith-based<\/a>\u201d film \u2014 and this week, if the estimates hold, it will have the eighth-best sixth weekend:<\/p>\n