"There have been zillions of Christian movies, and they have all been terrible," best-selling Christian author Frank Peretti told a religion news service two years ago. The next year, Peretti's "Hangman's Curse" was released on film and -- described by one reviewer as "perhaps the world's first Christian paranormal teen horror film" -- grossed only $150,000.
Affinity marketing produces rare word-of-mouth film successes -- "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" first targeted Greek Americans at parades around the nation and employed an e-mail campaign directed at people of Greek heritage. But the combination of Gibson's fame and reverential testimonials by churchgoers and clergy who have seen preview screenings has convinced many observers of religion and cinema that "The Passion" is a singular phenomenon. The word of mouth has been so great that Gibson, whose marketing representative did not return a phone call seeking comment, may make back his investment during the opening weekend, said Ralph Winter, a producer of secular and Christian films who has yet to see the movie.
Some clergy described a spellbound effect when 4,500 pastors attended a screening this month at Saddleback Church in the Orange County suburb of Lake Forest. "When it finished, there was dead silence for five minutes," said Ric Olsen, senior associate pastor at Harbor Trinity Baptist Church. "They let people kind of absorb it."
"It blew me away," said Michael Pierpoint, pastor of evangelism at Magnolia Avenue Baptist Church in Riverside, whose church bought seats for two screenings and purchased the "You've-got-questions" ad at a local multiplex. "I'm not an easy believer ... but to watch it depict the crucifixion so clearly -- it brought a new level of my understanding the depths God was willing to go to have a relationship with me."
One problem for movie marketers is that the Christian marketplace is not a monolith. For "The Passion," one group -- evangelicals -- fits easily into the role of promotional missionaries for the film. Not only does the movie line up closely with their theology, it also offers an opportunity to re-energize the faithful and evangelize to family and friends by simply inviting them to "a Mel Gibson movie."
