Miracles from Heaven Has Strong Opening Day

The strategy behind releasing religious drama Miracles from Heaven in the middle of the week instead of waiting for the traditional end-of-the-week release date was to give the modest film a jump on the higher-profile movies that will start competing with each other on Friday. The early performance of Miracles makes it look like the strategy was a smart one.

Miracles from Heaven sold $1.9 million worth of tickets on Wednesday night, and its five-day total for the period between Wednesday and Sunday should come in somewhere between $10 and $20 million. That's not too far behind similar faith-based drama Heaven Is for Real, which took in $22.5 million in its opening weekend; Heaven is for Real went on to gross $91.4 million domestically. Heaven is for Real, however, earned its $22.5 million within a traditional three-day opening frame.

Miracles from Heaven is also likely to outperform two other faith-based films that have been released in recent weeks, Risen and The Young Messiah. These two biblical historical dramas earned $11.8 and $3.3 million, respectively, in their opening weekends.

Miracles from Heaven doesn't have much chance to take the top spot for the week, though. That honor will go, most likely, to either hold-over Zootopia or new release The Divergent Series: Allegiant. Miracles from Heaven is more likely to be in a battle for third place with hold-over 10 Cloverfield Lane.