Christian film industry

The **Christian movie industry** is part the Christian Media. They make movies for Christians. They make movies that have moral lessons and Christian messages.

## Criteria

Popular films with Christian messages or or Biblical stories, such as _Ben-Hur_, _The Ten Commandments_, _The Prince of Egypt_, _The Robe_, _Sergeant York_, _The Blind Side_, _The Book of Eli_, _Machine Gun Preacher_, _Risen_, _Hacksaw Ridge_, and _Silence_, are not really part of the Christian film industry. They do not focus only on Christian audiences but to everyone. These kind of movies have more money, look better, use famous actors, and many movie critics like them.

A lot of Christian movies are made by Christians, for Christians. Most of them come from small group of people that mainly vibe with Christians. This trend really blew up after Sherwood Pictures dropped Fireproof, which ended up being the most successful group of 2008.

### Introduction

In 1646, a Catholic priest called  Athanasius Kircher promoted the magic lantern in his book. Later, some priests and groups of people used it to show power or to fight alcohol. In the 1800s, missionaries like David Livingstone used it to share the Gospel in Africa.

A lot of Christians begun using movies for their work as time went by. Herbert Booth from the Salvation Army said he was the first to use film for Christianity in the year 1899

### 20th century

In the 1940s, Christian film libraries began. In 1945, Harvey W. Marks started the Visual Aid Center. In 1968, Harry Bristow opened Christian Cinema in Philadelphia, later moving it to Ambler in the 1970s. The theater showed only Christian films until it closed in the mid-1990s. The growth of these libraries led to the Christian Film Distributors Association (CFDA) in 1974, which held yearly conferences. The group, later called the Christian Film and Video Association, gave Crown Awards to films that honored Jesus Christ.

In 1941, Spencer Williams made _The Blood of Jesus_, a film shown in cinemas and Black churches. The movie was made in Texas with only US$5,000. To show the afterlife, Williams used scenes from a 1911 Italian film, _L'Inferno_. The cast included beginner actors and a church choir that sang gospel music. The film’s success helped Williams make more movies for Sack Amusement Enterprises, including _Brother Martin: Servant of Jesus_ (1942, now lost) and _Go Down Death_ (1944).

In 1971, a movie called "_If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do?"_  was made from a sermon by Estus Pirkle. He first preached it in 1968 in Mississippi. Later, he worked with a filmmaker called Ron Ormond to turn the sermon into a movie. They also made other movies like ***The Burning Hell_ (1974)** and ***The Believer’s Heaven_ (1977)**. The first movie was their most famous and was shown in many churches and camps during the 1970s.

### Cinemas and film shows

Since 1941, when _The Great Commandment_ was shown in theaters, many Christian filmmakers have tried to put their movies in cinemas. World Wide Pictures worked with churches to do this. Gateway Films was started to share the Gospel in normal theaters and released _The Cross and the Switchblade_ in 1972. In 1979, the _Jesus_ film came to theaters in the U.S. It was based on the Gospel of Luke and cost $6 million to make by Campus Crusade for Christ.

In 1993, Tom Saab started the Merrimack Valley Christian Film Festival in Salem, New Hampshire. Every year, it happens during Easter week, and thousands of people come to watch Christian movies for free. His group, Christian Film Festivals of America, also held festivals in California and Florida. In 1999, the first WYSIWYG Film Festival was held at the Voice of Pentecost Church in San Francisco. Other Christian film festivals include the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival, the 168 Hour Film Project, and the Redemptive Film Festival.

Since then, many Christian movies have been shown in theaters. Some of them are _The Omega Code_ (1999), _Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie_ (2002), _Facing the Giants_ (2006), _Fireproof_ (2008), _Courageous_ (2011), _God’s Not Dead_ (2014), _War Room_ (2015), _I’m Not Ashamed_ (2016), _I Can Only Imagine_ (2018), _Breakthrough_ (2019), and _Overcomer_ (2019).

In 2006, about 50 Christian movies were made. They had about $39 million each on average. All big Hollywood studios started making plans to reach Christian and family audiences. Ted Baehr, the publisher of Movieguide, said that competition for Christian viewers is now strong and keeps growing. He also said the Christian audience for books, music, and movies has become steady and even bigger.

The growth of Christian movies led to many online stores that only sell and share Christian and family-friendly films. Some of these are Parables.tv, Exploration Films in Colorado, FishFlix.com, ChristianCinema.com, and ChristianMovies.com. Parables TV also offers streaming and TV. In 2013, FishFlix.com opened the first DVD store made just for Christian DVDs in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The 2014 movie _God’s Not Dead_ is one of the most successful Christian films ever made. In 2015, _War Room_ became the number one movie at the box office.

### South Africa

In South Africa, Christian movies are popular because most people are Christians. One movie is _Faith Like Potatoes_ (2006), a true story about farmer-turned-preacher Angus Buchan.

### Nigeria

Nigerian Christians are part of Nollywood, the country’s big film industry. About 20% of Nigerian movies are Christian. Many small companies, ministries, and big churches make hundreds of Christian films and see themselves as different from Nollywood. But many of their films still become popular and are shown on state TV.

The Redeemed Christian Church of God started a studio called Dove Studios, which became the biggest movie studio and distributor in Nigeria. By April 2006, they had sold over 50,000 movie copies. Another big event in Nigeria is the Gospel Film Festival (GOFESTIVAL).

## Related pages

- Independent movie

### Further reading

- Lindvall, Terry The Silents of God (Scarecrow Press, 2001)
- Lindvall, Terry Sanctuary Cinema (New York University Press, 2007)
- Lindvall, Terry and Andrew Quicke Celluloid Sermons: The Emergence of the Christian Film Industry, 1930–1986 (New York University Press, 2011)
- Seguins Pazzis, Bruno de, _Quand le christianisme fait son cinéma_, Paris, Le Cerf, 2018, 502 p. .
- Shen, Hsiang Yen, Cross-cultural effectiveness of Christian message films: Taiwanese responses to the concepts of God and Christianity in the film "Bruce Almighty",(ProQuest, 2010).