Films in Search of the Faithful: Hollywood Courts More Christians

There is a subsequent gnashing of teeth or rending of garments along the corporate canyons of Hollywood. Regret, anguish and then some gestures of atonement, through marketing outreach and promises of more faith-friendly entertainment.

Although a schism still remains, it is not entirely Hollywood's fault, says Dallas Jenkins, the director of "Midnight Clear." After "The Passion of the Christ" made more than $370 million domestically, "Hollywood woke up and said, 'How do we get to that audience?' " Mr. Jenkins said. "But when the studios turned to that audience, we weren't ready for them."

Mr. Jenkins was lamenting the dearth of directors or writers interested in creating the "family values" content absent the "cringe factor" that so-called mainstream audiences, rightly or wrongly, associate with religious-themed entertainment.

With his dramatic comedy "What If ...," which opened on Friday, Mr. Jenkins hopes to fill that void. The film borrows from popular moralistic fantasies like "Wonderful Life" and "The Family Man" and features Kevin Sorbo (television's "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys"), Kristy Swanson (the movie "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), John Ratzenberger ("Cheers," "Toy Story 3") and the Disney Channel phenom Debby Ryan ("The Suite Life on Deck"). The story is reliable: en route to the ministry, a young man is seduced by Mammon, until an angel shows him what his lost life would have been like. And there's an ambitious distribution plan: originally scheduled for a two-city release, "What If ..." will now open on 100 screens in 20 to 30 locales, with more to follow, although not without a kind of audience insurance.

"We don't go into a market unless we already know in advance that it has a decent chance of opening," Mr. Jenkins said, "that there are local churches, local radio stations, local sponsors on board who will buy 400 tickets and then sell them, or give them to a local youth group or whatever. So we have some idea of how it's going to do."

The grass-roots approach that Mr. Jenkins took with his Capraesque Christmas parable "Midnight Clear," in 2006, has been adopted, and adapted, by Hollywood in its efforts to tap the religious market. "On 'Passion' it was like a political campaign," said Bob Berney, who as president of Newmarket Films orchestrated the release of that Mel Gibson-directed spectacle in 2004. "It was begun by Mel back during the production and continued with our going to church leaders, opinion makers, step by step, larger and larger groups. Mel would go himself. You have to reach out to these people. They want to be talked to." There are even public-relations firms, like Motive, Mr. Berney added, that specialize in selling Hollywood's wares to church-centric audiences.

Despite the industry's awareness, Hollywood can still be blindsided by something like "The Blind Side," which won Sandra Bullock a best actress Oscar for her performance as an altruistic Christian socialite. "Hollywood didn't predict its success because it didn't necessarily do huge business in the theaters Hollywood usually tracks," Mr. Jenkins said. "But it did in Peoria and Midland, Tex., and Alabama. Our bread and butter will be places like Dayton, Grand Rapids, Charlotte and Fort Lauderdale."

Ted Mundorff, the chief executive of Landmark Theaters, which has 55 theaters in 22 markets nationwide dedicated to independent cinema, agrees. "The reason that there are more theaters playing a film in the heartland may be the result of more churches or organizations in that particular area and where the majority of the people living there will resonate with the film's particular message," he said. "This, of course, is not the approach a mainstream, commercial distribution company takes."

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