{"id":57805,"date":"2018-02-22T10:20:29","date_gmt":"2018-02-22T18:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=57805"},"modified":"2018-02-22T10:47:11","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T18:47:11","slug":"box-office-samson-fails-crack-weekends-top-ten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2018\/02\/box-office-samson-fails-crack-weekends-top-ten.html","title":{"rendered":"Box office: Samson<\/i> fails to crack the weekend’s top ten"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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

He killed a lion with his bare hands, and a thousand Philistines with a donkey\u2019s jawbone, but Samson couldn\u2019t crack the top ten at the North American box office this week.<\/p>\n

Pure Flix\u2019s Samson<\/a><\/i> \u2014 which is currently playing in 1,249 theatres \u2014 earned just over $1.9 million between Friday and Sunday, which is one of the lowest openings ever<\/a> for a \u201cfaith-based\u201d film playing in over a thousand theatres. (Only 2014\u2019s The Identical<\/a><\/i> and 2012\u2019s Last Ounce of Courage<\/i> have done worse with such a wide release.)<\/p>\n

For a while, Samson<\/i> was running neck-and-neck with Spielberg\u2019s The Post<\/i> for the #10 spot, but now that the final numbers are in, The Post<\/i> is at #10 with $1,988,634 (and a $76.6 million cume since opening in December) and Samson<\/i> is at #11 with $1,943,569.<\/p>\n

Samson<\/i> also had one of the worst first weekends of any Bible-themed film over the last 40 years that was released on more than a handful of screens:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. 2004 \u2014 The Passion of the Christ<\/i> \u2014 $83.8 million\n<\/li>
  2. 2014 \u2014 Noah<\/i> \u2014 $43.7 million\n<\/li>
  3. 2014 \u2014 Son of God<\/i> \u2014 $25.6 million\n<\/li>
  4. 2014 \u2014 Exodus: Gods & Kings<\/i> \u2014 $24.1 million\n<\/li>
  5. 2009 \u2014 Year One<\/i> \u2014 $19.6 million\n<\/li>
  6. 2017 \u2014 The Shack<\/i> \u2014 $16.2 million\n<\/li>
  7. 1998 \u2014 The Prince of Egypt<\/i> \u2014 $14.5 million\n<\/li>
  8. 2016 \u2014 Risen<\/i> \u2014 $11.8 million\n<\/li>
  9. 2016 \u2014 Hail, Caesar!<\/i> \u2014 $11.4 million\n<\/li>
  10. 2016 \u2014 Ben-Hur<\/i> \u2014 $11.2 million\n<\/li>
  11. 2017 \u2014 The Star<\/i> \u2014 $9.8 million\n<\/li>
  12. 2006 \u2014 The Nativity Story<\/i> \u2014 $7.8 million\n<\/li>
  13. 2002 \u2014 Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie<\/i> \u2014 $6.2 million\n<\/li>
  14. 1981 \u2014 History of the World, Part I<\/i> \u2014 $4.8 million\n<\/li>
  15. 2006 \u2014 One Night with the King<\/i> \u2014 $4.1 million\n<\/li>
  16. 1980 \u2014 Wholly Moses!<\/i> \u2014 $3.6 million\n<\/li>
  17. 2016 \u2014 The Young Messiah<\/i> \u2014 $3.3 million\n<\/li>
  18. 1985 \u2014 King David<\/i> \u2014 $2.2 million\n<\/li>
  19. 2018 \u2014 Samson<\/i> \u2014 $1.9 million<\/b>\n<\/li>
  20. 2007 \u2014 The Ten Commandments<\/i> \u2014 $478,910<\/li><\/ol>\n

    Here is how Samson<\/i>\u2019s total domestic gross-to-date ranks next to that of other Bible-themed films released over the last 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. 2017 \u2014 The Star<\/i> \u2014 $40.9 million\n<\/li>
    9. 2006 \u2014 The Nativity Story<\/i> \u2014 $37.6 million\n<\/li>
    10. 2016 \u2014 Risen<\/i> \u2014 $36.9 million\n<\/li>
    11. 1981 \u2014 History of the World, Part I<\/i> \u2014 $31.7 million\n<\/li>
    12. 2016 \u2014 Hail, Caesar!<\/i> \u2014 $30.5 million\n<\/li>
    13. 2016 \u2014 Ben-Hur<\/i> \u2014 $26.4 million\n<\/li>
    14. 2002 \u2014 Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie<\/i> \u2014 $25.6 million\n<\/li>
    15. 1979 \u2014 Monty Python\u2019s Life of Brian<\/i> \u2014 $20 million\n<\/li>
    16. 1980 \u2014 Wholly Moses!<\/i> \u2014 $14.2 million\n<\/li>
    17. 2006 \u2014 One Night with the King<\/i> \u2014 $13.4 million\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>
    22. 2018 \u2014 Samson<\/i> \u2014 $2.5 million<\/b>\n<\/li>
    23. 2007 \u2014 The Ten Commandments<\/i> \u2014 $952,820<\/li><\/ol>\n

      .
      The big story this week, of course, is that       Black Panther<\/a><\/i> opened to a better-than-expected $202 million \u2014 currently the fifth-best opening of all time<\/a>, behind two Star Wars<\/i> movies, Jurassic World<\/i> and The Avengers<\/i>. While most studios stayed out of the Marvel movie\u2019s way, Pure Flix apparently hoped that Samson<\/i> could provide a bit of \u201cfaith-based\u201d counter-programming, and their marketing made a point of calling Samson \u201cthe first superhero\u201d \u2014 but the strategy may have backfired, as audiences opted to see the superhero movie that had a much bigger budget and much better reviews.<\/p>\n

      The only other new wide release this week, Aardman Animation\u2019s Early Man<\/i>, flopped with $3.2 million, which was the lowest opening of any film produced by Aardman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      This coming weekend brings us Annihilation<\/i>, Every Day<\/i> and Game Night<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Pure Flix’s movie about “the first superhero” ended up with one of the worst first-weekend grosses of any biblical drama, or any “faith-based” film that got released on over a thousand screens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":57971,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4285,19,4313,4310,4130],"class_list":["post-57805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-black-panther","tag-box-office","tag-early-man","tag-post-2017","tag-samson-2018"],"yoast_head":"\nBox office: Samson fails to crack the weekend's top ten<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pure Flix's movie about "the first superhero" ended up with one of the worst first-weekend grosses of any biblical drama, or any "faith-based" film that got released on over a thousand screens.\" \/>\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\/2018\/02\/box-office-samson-fails-crack-weekends-top-ten.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Box office: Samson fails to crack the weekend's top ten\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pure Flix's movie about "the first superhero" ended up with one of the worst first-weekend grosses of any biblical drama, or any "faith-based" film that got released on over a thousand screens.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2018\/02\/box-office-samson-fails-crack-weekends-top-ten.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-22T18:20:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-02-22T18:47:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/227\/2018\/02\/samson-tossesguy.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"384\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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