News
COURAGEOUS Official Opening Weekend Results
1) Ranking. COURAGEOUS was the
#4 movie in the country, though it opened against six other
movies with almost three times as many screens. It was the #1
new movie of the weekend!
2) Audience. More than 1 million people saw COURAGEOUS this
weekend.
3) Box office. Total box-office was $9 million, $2.2 million
more than FIREPROOF on opening weekend.
4) Per-screen. Per-screen, COURAGEOUS averaged $7752, almost
doubling everyone else.
5) CinemaScore. COURAGEOUS received a rare A+ CinemaScore, a
signal to expect strong word-of-mouth in coming weeks.
6) Mainstream press response. Most general entertainment press
and reporting outlets were surprised by COURAGEOUS. A couple of
early excerpts before the actuals were in:
Variety
"Time and again, the pic effectively emphasizes how the deputies
are reminded on a daily basis what eventually can happen to
at-risk children who don't have fathers involved in their lives.
Little wonder, then, that they're moved to ask God's help to
hone their own paternal skills."
Box Office Mojo
"Sherwood Pictures' COURAGEOUS scored $8.8 million from just
1,161 theaters for a strong per-theater average of $7,580. . .
The opening ranks fifth all-time for a Christian movie, and only
trails THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST and the three NARNIA movies." .
. . "Made outside of Hollywood without any major stars,
COURAGEOUS managed to fly under most radars (including my own)
until very recently. It's unfair to ignore the vast majority of
church-going Americans for whom typical Hollywood fare isn't of
great interest, though, and Sherwood Pictures has impressively
found a way to mobilize this subset of the population."
Time
(Best Title Award): Surprise! Dolphins and Jesus Beat Cancer and
Dead Kids!“Like the Christian-themed SOUL SURFER, the Kendrick's
holy-cop film (with a $1-million budget) was pitched to the
faithful, who came out fervently this weekend and gave it an
A-plus CinemaScore. Opening in just 1,161 theaters, COURAGEOUS
had the top per-screen average of any movie in the top 25. Even
an agnostic would call that heavenly.”
7) Other indicators. Sales of books and resources supporting
film's message—The Resolution books and others—reflect the
movie’s spreading influence. Kerusso, maker of t-shirts, reports
five times as many COURAGEOUS t-shirts sold as for FIREPROOF.
Meanwhile, Facebook fans count on the COURAGEOUS fan page has
leapt in a few days from 224,000 to 247,000.
Sherwood Church and its national field of supporters have long
prayed for God to do “exceedingly, abundantly more than we could
ever ask or imagine,” and He’s doing it. Thank you again for
your coverage. Let us know if you'd like to talk with the
filmmakers or actors for follow-up stories this week—and let us
know how we can help.
Learn more:
CourageoustheMovie.com
Join COURAGEOUS on Facebook:
Facebook.com/CourageoustheMovie