{"id":56251,"date":"2017-11-19T14:57:26","date_gmt":"2017-11-19T22:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=56251"},"modified":"2017-11-19T14:57:26","modified_gmt":"2017-11-19T22:57:26","slug":"box-office-star-okay-faith-based-film-poorly-animated-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2017\/11\/box-office-star-okay-faith-based-film-poorly-animated-film.html","title":{"rendered":"Box office: The Star<\/i> does okay for a “faith-based” film, but poorly for an animated film"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"star-joseph-zechariah\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Star<\/b><\/i> \u2014 the first animated feature based on the New Testament to be made by a major studio \u2014 had a less than stellar opening at the box office this week.<\/p>\n

The Star<\/i> earned an estimated $10 million between Thursday and Sunday nights<\/a> \u2014 the smallest opening of any film released by Sony Pictures Animation<\/a>. (Their previous smallest was the $11.1 million that The Pirates! Band of Misfits<\/i> opened to in 2012.)<\/p>\n

Among animated adaptations of the Bible, The Star<\/i> had a noticeably smaller opening than DreamWorks\u2019 The Prince of Egypt<\/i>, which opened to $14.5 million in 1998, but a bigger opening than Artisan\u2019s Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie<\/i>, which opened to $6.2 million in 2001. (Universal\u2019s The Pirates Who Don\u2019t Do Anything<\/i> \u2014 which was also a \u201cfaith-based\u201d cartoon but not a Bible adaptation \u2014 opened even smaller, with $4.3 million in 2008.)<\/p>\n

The Star<\/i> did have a stronger opening than the last couple of films about the Nativity, i.e. The Nativity Story<\/a><\/i>, which opened to $7.8 million in 2006, and Black Nativity<\/a><\/i>, which opened to $3.7 million in 2013 and grossed $7 million during its entire run.<\/p>\n

The Star<\/i> has also already outgrossed The Young Messiah<\/a><\/i>, which had some flashbacks to the Nativity and its aftermath; that film earned only $6.5 million last year.<\/p>\n

The Star<\/i> also managed to have one of the ten best openings for a \u201cfaith-based<\/a>\u201d film:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. 2004 \u2014 The Passion of the Christ<\/i> \u2014 $83.8 million\n<\/li>
  2. 2014 \u2014 Son of God<\/i> \u2014 $25.6 million\n<\/li>
  3. 2014 \u2014 Heaven Is for Real<\/i> \u2014 $22.5 million\n<\/li>
  4. 2017 \u2014 The Shack<\/i> \u2014 $16.2 million\n<\/li>
  5. 2016 \u2014 Miracles from Heaven<\/i> \u2014 $14.8 million\n<\/li>
  6. 2016 \u2014 Risen<\/i> \u2014 $11.8 million\n<\/li>
  7. 2015 \u2014 War Room<\/i> \u2014 $11.4 million\n<\/li>
  8. 2016 \u2014 Ben-Hur<\/i> \u2014 $11.2 million\n<\/li>
  9. 2011 \u2014 Soul Surfer<\/i> \u2014 $10.6 million\n<\/li>
  10. 2017 \u2014 The Star<\/i> \u2014 $10.0 million<\/b>\n<\/li>
  11. 2014 \u2014 God\u2019s Not Dead<\/i> \u2014 $9.2 million\n<\/li>
  12. 2011 \u2014 Courageous<\/i> \u2014 $9.1 million<\/li><\/ol>\n

    As far as the film\u2019s total gross to date is concerned, this is where The Star<\/i> ranks among Bible and\/or Jesus films released in the past 40 years:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. 2004 \u2014 The Passion of the Christ<\/i> \u2014 $370.8 million\n<\/li>
    2. 1998 \u2014 The Prince of Egypt<\/i> \u2014 $101.4 million\n<\/li>
    3. 2014 \u2014 Noah<\/i> \u2014 $101.2 million\n<\/li>
    4. 2014 \u2014 Exodus: Gods and Kings<\/i> \u2014 $65 million\n<\/li>
    5. 2014 \u2014 Son of God<\/i> \u2014 $59.7 million\n<\/li>
    6. 2017 \u2014 The Shack<\/i> \u2014 $57.4 million\n<\/li>
    7. 2009 \u2014 Year One<\/i> \u2014 $43.3 million\n<\/li>
    8. 2006 \u2014 The Nativity Story<\/i> \u2014 $37.6 million\n<\/li>
    9. 2016 \u2014 Risen<\/i> \u2014 $36.9 million\n<\/li>
    10. 1981 \u2014 History of the World, Part I<\/i> \u2014 $31.7 million\n<\/li>
    11. 2016 \u2014 Hail, Caesar!<\/i> \u2014 $30.5 million\n<\/li>
    12. 2016 \u2014 Ben-Hur<\/i> \u2014 $26.4 million\n<\/li>
    13. 2002 \u2014 Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie<\/i> \u2014 $25.6 million\n<\/li>
    14. 1979 \u2014 Monty Python\u2019s Life of Brian<\/i> \u2014 $20 million\n<\/li>
    15. 1980 \u2014 Wholly Moses!<\/i> \u2014 $14.2 million\n<\/li>
    16. 2006 \u2014 One Night with the King<\/i> \u2014 $13.4 million\n<\/li>
    17. 2017 \u2014 The Star<\/i> \u2014 $10.0 million<\/b>\n<\/li>
    18. 1988 \u2014 The Last Temptation of Christ<\/i> \u2014 $8.4 million\n<\/li>
    19. 2016 \u2014 The Young Messiah<\/i> \u2014 $6.5 million\n<\/li>
    20. 1985 \u2014 King David<\/i> \u2014 $5.1 million\n<\/li>
    21. 2003 \u2014 The Gospel of John<\/i> \u2014 $4.1 million\n<\/li><\/ol>\n

      .
      Box-office observers have proposed a few reasons for The Star<\/i>\u2019s weak debut, among them the fact that it was competing for family audiences with Wonder<\/i>, a live-action drama that opened to $27.1 million this weekend. Both films, as it happens, were       co-produced by family-friendly Walden Media<\/a>, but they were released by different studios.<\/p>\n

      The question now is whether The Star<\/i> can stay afloat during the five weeks between now and Christmas Day, or whether it will fade from view as animated heavyweights like Disney-Pixar\u2019s Coco<\/i> and Fox\u2019s Ferdinand<\/i> claim their piece of the holiday action.1<\/sup><\/p>\n

      \u2013<\/p>\n

      1. Incidentally, voice actors from The Star<\/i> turn up in both of the season\u2019s other animated films, as well. Gina Rodriguez and Anthony Anderson are among the co-stars of Ferdinand<\/i>, and Gabriel Iglesias can be heard in that film as well as Coco<\/i>, too.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The Star<\/i> had the lowest opening in Sony Animation’s history, but ranks among the top ten openings for “faith-based” films.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":56314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4189,31,19,4198,4199,4045,559,548,3782,2032,4197],"class_list":["post-56251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-anthony-anderson","tag-black-nativity","tag-box-office","tag-ferdinand-2017","tag-gabriel-iglesias","tag-gina-rodriguez","tag-nativity","tag-nativity-story","tag-star-2017","tag-veggietales","tag-wonder-2017"],"yoast_head":"\nBox office: The Star does okay for a "faith-based" film, but poorly for an animated film<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Star had the lowest opening in Sony Animation's history, but ranks among the top ten openings for "faith-based" films.\" \/>\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\/2017\/11\/box-office-star-okay-faith-based-film-poorly-animated-film.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Box office: The Star does okay for a "faith-based" film, but poorly for an animated film\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Star had the lowest opening in Sony Animation's history, but ranks among the top ten openings for "faith-based" films.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2017\/11\/box-office-star-okay-faith-based-film-poorly-animated-film.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-19T22:57:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/227\/2017\/11\/star-joseph-zechariah.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"322\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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