Introducing Courageous- and a little hint of perspective...

I am so excited about Sherwood Pictures' newest movie, Courageous, coming out in September!

Their past two films, Facing the Giants and Fireproof, were awesome- leaving me on the edge of my seat waiting for the next movie to come out by them...

Thinking about Courageous got me thinking about their other films and on some wild hair I decided to Google them.  (Just for fun I guess... I don't really know why! :) )  What I discovered when I looked at them in Wikipedia astounded me.

Did you know that the budget for Facing the Giants was $100,000?

The movie's gross income was $10,225,767.

What about Fireproof?

Budget: $500,000

Gross Income?

Here' what Wiki says:

Fireproof's advance sales accounted for 40% of all Fandango sales the week before the film opened. It was released on September 26, 2008 in 839 theaters and grossed $6,836,036 in its opening weekend, placing at #4. During its run, Fireproof had a domestic gross of $33,456,317, more than triple the lifetime earnings of its predecessor, Facing the Giants, and moving it into the top 6 grossing Christian films of all time. It was the highest grossing independent film of 2008.

On its first weekend of DVD release, it ranked third in retail sales and fifth in rentals with a rental index of 51.02. After the upcoming weeks, it sold $28,507,308 in DVD sales.

WOW!

It was astounding to me when I read that!  But it was more amazing when I looked up another Christian film to get some perspective.

"Letters to God is based on the true story of Tyler Doughtie, who was played in the film by Tanner Maguire. Parts of the story are real, and others were fictionalized, such as the character of a drunken mailman named Brady McDaniels (Jeffrey Johnson), who receives Tyler's 'letters to God.' The film was released to theaters on April 9, 2010, with mixed reviews. Despite opening at #10 at the box office, it fell just $150,000 short of its $3 million budget with a final gross of $2.85 million."

I would say that Letters to God was a pretty good film.  What was different about it than the Sherwood films?  What made them get such a better reception?

The difference that I saw was that Letters to God was a good movie- Christian and wholesome- but Fireproof was a great movie- on fire (ha- literally!) for Jesus with no compromises (no excuses for disrespect toward parents- in Letters to God, this is accepted as "normal").

Maybe people just want the "real deal"... it's possible.

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."

Proverbs 6:5-6

"Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men."

Proverbs 22:29

Thank you, Sherwood Pictures, for making movies that aren't "watered down"- that my family and I can watch that are not only "clean" but also edifying and encouraging in our faith!

God surely seems to have His hand on Sherwood Pictures...

Don't miss Courageous coming out on September 30!