The Case for Christ Movie Adds More Theaters for Easter Weekend
With an A+ rating from CinemaScore, feature film The Case for Christ garnered $3.9 million dollars in box office revenue during its opening weekend. Its debut was strong enough for producers to expand the movie’s reach to 1,600 theaters nationwide this Easter weekend, a 40 percent increase.
Based on Lee Strobel’s book that has sold millions of copies over the last two decades, The Case for Christ movie, starring Mike Vogel (The Help), Erika Christensen (Parenthood), and Oscar-winner Faye Dunaway, provides a thought-provoking yet tender glimpse at coming to grips with mankind’s greatest time-tested truth.
The Case for Christ works on many levels for its willingness to interweave an authentic love story of a couple struggling with their spiritual identity with what is essentially a 300-page apologetics book. Such a juxtaposition of themes provides an excellent platform for post-screening conversation over coffee with family and friends who are searching.
While the movie has certainly resonated with the faith community in its opening days there is concern that skeptics and non-believers will stay away based on the movie’s title. For his part, Strobel is confident the big screen adaptation will break down those barriers if the people who have seen it take an evangelistic approach.
“They (Christians) are going to walk out (of the theater) and say that was a fabulous movie and I can think of a half a dozen people in my life who need to see it,” he said in a recent interview with CBN.com. “They are going to get on the phone. They are going to invite their cousin who is an atheist or their colleague at work who is spiritually confused. They are going to call these people up and say, 'Hey, I’m going to see this movie a second time. Why don’t you come with me? I will buy the ticket and the popcorn.' Then it becomes a relationship after the movie. They can now go out and have a conversation. I think this is almost better than trying to reach non-believers directly in a vacuum.”
The Case for Christ movie is already making a deep impact on viewers including a high school youth group in North Carolina. When a local youth pastor took his students to see the film, four made a decision to receive salvation in Christ as the closing credits rolled.
“We are already seeing the beginning of what I believe will be a bit of a revival taking place,” Strobel says excitedly. “God can use this film in amazing ways.”
See a trailer for The Case for Christ:
