“Faith-based movies are preaching to the converted, literally. “These movies aren’t aimed at the critics,” Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak, told TheWrap. Another factor may be that critics and journalists in general are typically seen as a group more secular than religious.Īlso Read: Critics Destroy 'War Room': 7 Worst Reviews Crushing Christian Drama With so many negative reviews of films in this genre, it’s easy to wonder if Christian-themed movies just rub reviewers the wrong way. Darren Aronofsky‘s “Noah” bucked the trend with a 77 percent positive ratings - though many of the Christian faithful stayed away from theaters - and the Greg Kinnear film “Heaven Is for Real” was at 46 percent.
That’s in line with the low scores for other recent faith-based films including “God’s Not Dead” (16 percent fresh), “Son of God” (21 percent) and “Mom’s Night Out.” (16 percent), “Exodus: Gods and Kings” (27 percent). Of the reviews, ten are negative and two are positive, adding up to an overall rating of just 17 percent “fresh.” It has been reviewed by 12 critics on aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, a relatively low number. The two play a middle-aged couple struggling in their marriage until they meet a stranger (Karen Abercrombie) who points out the power of prayer.Īlso Read: 'War Room' Raises Holy Hell at Box Office but 'Straight Outta Compton' Wins Third Stallings and New York Times best-selling Christian author Priscilla Shirer. “War Room” was produced, directed and co-written by Alex Kendrick and features a mainly African-American cast topped by T.C. 1 spot nationally on Friday, its first day of release by Sony’s Affirm Films. It even knocked defending champ “Straight Outta Compton” out of the No. Ripped by critics, the film doubled the predictions of box-office analysts with $11 million and came in second, leaving other high-profile openers in the dust. Last year, Michael Bay‘s “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” Angelina Jolie‘s “Maleficent” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” all were beaten up by critics but went on to box-office success.īut rarely is the divide between critics and the crowds so great as it is when it’s a religiously-themed movie, and “War Room” provided a spectacular example of that this weekend. It’s not unusual for critics and audiences to be divided, particularly in the summer, since superhero and action films aren’t necessarily intended to be high art, simply crowd-pleasers.
“War Room,” the low-budget movie about the power of prayer that broke out at the box office this weekend, is the latest example of audiences making a hit out of a film that the critics panned.
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