Evangelical Christians may not have fully gotten what they might have wanted in the midterm elections, but they have proven their power at the movie theater box office this month.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ-based series, “The Chosen,” has been pleasing multitudes through their much-shared app for two seasons now. But for the 3rd season, the brains behind the crowdfunded series decided to take a calculated risk. And like the miracles in the series, it has astonished the crowds and paid off massively.
Instead of debuting the next season in the same way the first two seasons were, they packaged together the first two episodes and showed them in more than two thousand theaters across the United States. The result, based on box office receipts for November 20, is a second-place finish.
According to “The Numbers,” a website that tracks raw box office information, “The Chosen” grossed $2,193,385 on Sunday, coming
right behind the Disney sure thing, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” It did better than “The Menu” which is getting its share of Oscar buzz and played in one thousand more theaters.
This isn’t the first time the staunchly Christian series has surprised many with its box office results. According to The Daily Wire, “Christmas with Chosen: The Messengers,” opened last year at this time with $4.2 million for its opening weekend. It got to number 4 in box office ticket sales. The total amount earned by the Christmas film was $13.7 million, making it the best-selling Fathom Event of all time.
Dallas Jenkins, the son of Left Behind co-author Jerry Jenkins, gets credit for much of “The Chosen’s” success. He is involved in every aspect of making the final product, including writing and shooting the movies, to the marketing them as well.
What remains to be seen is whether Hollywood is taking notice.
Watch the trailer:
