{"id":8490,"date":"2011-10-10T19:57:18","date_gmt":"2011-10-10T23:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=8490"},"modified":"2011-10-10T20:58:38","modified_gmt":"2011-10-11T00:58:38","slug":"courageous-movie-makers-like-being-number-one-but-say-success-is-changed-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/10\/courageous-movie-makers-like-being-number-one-but-say-success-is-changed-lives","title":{"rendered":"“Courageous” movie-makers like being in the top ten, but say success is “changed lives”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Alex Kendrick, acting in "Courageous" with Rusty Martin, playing his son<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a strong opening weekend, the church-produced movie “Courageous” was still in the top ten at the box office for weekend two.<\/p>\n

It had debuted in the number four spot nationally, making more than $9 million nationwide — more than four times what it cost to make.<\/p>\n

Made on a $2 million budget by a pair of movie-making preachers who are brothers, the film raked in a total of $9,614,447 in its first weekend. On opening day, September 30, it brought in $3,111,101.<\/p>\n

“Our church family is excited and thrilled, Albany has been amazing at coming out to the movie,” writer and producer Steven Kendrick told hometown WFXL Channel 31<\/a>. “We’re so grateful at the response. It was the number one new movie in theaters, it had the highest per screen average over the weekend.”<\/p>\n

In its second weekend, it raked in another $4.6 million.\u00a0Albany is the little Georgia town where Kendrick is an associate pastor at Sherwood Baptist Church with his brother Alex, also an associate pastor and the director of the movie.<\/p>\n

“Sherwood Pictures, the moviemaking ministry of Sherwood Church in Albany, Ga., is a better judge of its audience than the tracking services are,” marveled the industry magazine Variety.<\/a><\/em>“Its most recent film, ‘Courageous,’ released by Sony’s TriStar Pictures, minted $9.6 million from just 1,161 stateside locations in its opening weekend.<\/p>\n

Industry experts didn’t expect the film to do so well,\u00a0Variety<\/em> noted.<\/p>\n

“‘Courageous,’ which didn’t even figure in pre-weekend tracking services,” noted Variety<\/em> writer Andrew Stewart, “started out strong before it even debuted with advanced ticket sales totaling around $2 million. The film continued to build momentum throughout the weekend, surprising most [box office] observers by topping a trio of higher-profile wide releases that included ‘Dream House’ and ’50\/50.'”<\/p>\n

In 2008, the Kendrick brothers’ “Fireproof” opened with $6.8 million and went on to became that year’s highest-grossing independent release with $33.5 million domestically.<\/p>\n

Despite the financial success of “Courageous,” Alex told the New York Times<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>he \u00a0hopes the film will do more than just reach the top of the charts.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuccess for us is changed lives,\u201d he said. “It\u2019s important to keep in mind we\u2019re not Hollywood, we\u2019re not trying to be Hollywood. We\u2019re first a ministry. So before each movie that we do, we commit time to pray and say, ‘God, what movie do you want us to do next?’ So we felt like me, my brother, that fatherhood was where our heart was turning. Given that, we started researching fatherhood, the national fatherhood initiative, Washington organizations, just pulling stats, and we noted that part of a dad\u2019s job is to protect and serve his family and law enforcement is known for protecting and serving, so we put it in the context of a law enforcement story.”<\/p>\n

“Courageous” tells the story of four law enforcement officers who clean up crime in their community but struggle to be godly, loving fathers and husbands. When tragedy hits the family of one of the officers, the four men sign a resolution to live up to their responsibility as husbands and dads.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say in today\u2019s culture, the father is often the butt of the joke, and that\u2019s sad, and so we would like men to raise their own standard. And do it in a way through a story that\u2019s not only entertaining, but inspirational and challenging,\u201d Kendrick told the Times.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In order to further the message of godly manhood, the movie’s makers have created a number of resources to help churches and individuals explore the film’s themes in their own lives. Among those are the books The Resolution for Men, The Resolution for Women<\/em> and the Courageous Living Bible Study<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Estimates show the film brought in $4.6 million over the weekend, making it the sixth highest overall earner, according to the website boxofficemojo.com.<\/p>\n

The weekend’s top earner was another inspirational film \u201cReal Steel,\u201d about a boy and his father training a robot to box, starring Hugh Jackman. It brought in an estimated gross of $27.3 million in its first weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ides of March,\u201d a political drama was second at $10.4 million.\u00a0In third was the inspirational \u201cDolphin Tale\u201d ($9.2 million).<\/p>\n

Is “Courageous” accomplishing its goal of changing lives?\u00a0A Facebook user, Susan Whitlow, posted on the film’s fan page that her husband, a deputy, and two of his co-workers saw the movie, and are all now attending her church’s 7-week class for men — and that the first night of the course was so crowded that it had to be moved to a bigger room.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m so thankful for a movie that is encouraging men in their roles as husbands and fathers, and for a church doing the same!\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

Do the Kendrick brothers hope to reach beyond church folks?<\/p>\n

“We know that audiences that share our faith will respond,” Alex told the Times,<\/em> “and what we know from our previous three movies is there\u2019s lots of bleed over. What we don\u2019t try and do is ride the fence. We\u2019re not trying to win both sides of the fence, we\u2019re pretty out front with what we believe and why we make the movies — we don\u2019t try and hide it.<\/p>\n

“But at the end of the day we\u2019re trying to encourage dads of any faith to love your kids, be there for them, tell them you approve of them and affirm them. For us when a dad does a good job, that helps them trust and love God, that\u2019s ministry for us.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a strong opening weekend, the church-produced movie “Courageous” was still in the top ten at the box office for weekend two. It had debuted in the number four spot nationally, making more than $9 million nationwide — more than four times what it cost to make. Made on a $2 million budget by a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[184],"tags":[1727,1724,1726,1725,1728],"class_list":["post-8490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-alex-kendrick","tag-courageous","tag-sherwood-baptist-church","tag-sherwood-pictures","tag-steven-kendrick"],"yoast_head":"\n"Courageous" movie-makers like being in the top ten, but say success is "changed lives"<\/title>\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.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/10\/courageous-movie-makers-like-being-number-one-but-say-success-is-changed-lives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Courageous" movie-makers like being in the top ten, but say success is "changed lives"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After a strong opening weekend, the church-produced movie “Courageous” was still in the top ten at the box office for weekend two. It had debuted in the number four spot nationally, making more than $9 million nationwide — more than four times what it cost to make. Made on a $2 million budget by a…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/10\/courageous-movie-makers-like-being-number-one-but-say-success-is-changed-lives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-10T23:57:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-10-11T00:58:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/files\/2011\/10\/sherwoodcap-blog480.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Courageous\" movie-makers like being in the top ten, but say success is \"changed lives\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/10\/courageous-movie-makers-like-being-number-one-but-say-success-is-changed-lives","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Courageous\" movie-makers like being in the top ten, but say success is \"changed lives\"","og_description":"After a strong opening weekend, the church-produced movie “Courageous” was still in the top ten at the box office for weekend two. It had debuted in the number four spot nationally, making more than $9 million nationwide — more than four times what it cost to make. Made on a $2 million budget by a…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/10\/courageous-movie-makers-like-being-number-one-but-say-success-is-changed-lives","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2011-10-10T23:57:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-10-11T00:58:38+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/files\/2011\/10\/sherwoodcap-blog480.jpg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/10\/courageous-movie-makers-like-being-number-one-but-say-success-is-changed-lives","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/10\/courageous-movie-makers-like-being-number-one-but-say-success-is-changed-lives","name":"\"Courageous\" movie-makers like being in the top ten, but say success is \"changed lives\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/10\/courageous-movie-makers-like-being-number-one-but-say-success-is-changed-lives#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/10\/courageous-movie-makers-like-being-number-one-but-say-success-is-changed-lives#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/files\/2011\/10\/sherwoodcap-blog480.jpg","datePublished":"2011-10-10T23:57:18+00:00","dateModified":"2011-10-11T00:58:38+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/10\/courageous-movie-makers-like-being-number-one-but-say-success-is-changed-lives#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/10\/courageous-movie-makers-like-being-number-one-but-say-success-is-changed-lives"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/10\/courageous-movie-makers-like-being-number-one-but-say-success-is-changed-lives#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/files\/2011\/10\/sherwoodcap-blog480.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/files\/2011\/10\/sherwoodcap-blog480.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/10\/courageous-movie-makers-like-being-number-one-but-say-success-is-changed-lives#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“Courageous” movie-makers like being in the top ten, but say success is “changed lives”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8490"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8494,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8490\/revisions\/8494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}