'Ben-Hur' Flop: Can Faith-Based Movies Play in the Big Leagues?

Last weekend's launch of the Biblical-historical epic Ben-Hur was an unqualified disaster, despite a concerted marketing effort by its studio to pitch the movie toward Christian audiences who, the studio hoped, were willing to come out in large numbers to support faith-based movies. The number of moviegoers turned out to be much too small, however, to make the big-budget Ben-Hur a success. Does that mean that faith-based movies have become a bad gamble?

Ben-Hur took in $11.3 million in its opening weekend, an awful figure considering that the film had a production budget of approximately $100 million. Even 2014's Exodus: Gods and Kings, widely considered to be a fine example of a big-budget Biblical flop, took in more than twice as much in its first weekend. Noah, another Biblical disappointment, earned $43 million in its opening weekend in 2014, but it ultimately failed to reach a domestic gross equal to its production budget.

The problem seems to be one of scale. Hollywood studios have tried and failed over the past few years to tap into the success of more modest Christian movies such as God's Not Dead and Heaven Is for Real. It's important to note, however, that those low-budget films turned in domestic gross totals - $61 million and $91 million, respectively - that would have represented a significant failure for a big-budget Hollywood film. It's also worth noting that the most successful recent Christian films have been modest dramas about contemporary characters, not grand historical epics.

The lesson seems to be that, if you want to make money on Christian film, keep the budget small and the message direct, and save the special effects budget for the superhero movies.