Fireproof as Rocky redux

From Dale Buss in the WSJ (hat tip: Linda Christiansen)...

Through a purely Hollywood lens, "Fireproof" is the most unlikely film success since "Rocky." It was written by novice screenwriters, cast nearly entirely with amateurs, staffed largely by volunteers, and shot almost all on location. It wrapped for a total outlay of only $500,000.

But that's where God provides a different prism. The movie, about a Christian fire captain who recommits to his marriage, collected more than $33 million -- and was the biggest-grossing indie movie of 2008 -- precisely because it was produced by a church in Albany, Ga., which then networked with other evangelicals and with Roman Catholics to create enormous grass-roots demand....

Yet "Fireproof" also provides a sharp reminder of the film industry's spotty record with church-going audiences since the resounding success of "The Passion of the Christ" in 2004. Mel Gibson stunned the world by garnering $370 million in receipts for his crucifixion drama, told in Aramaic with no A-list stars....

Traditional studios have been trying harder, while monied independents -- such as Walden Media, founded by the Christian oil baron Philip Anschutz -- have laid their own pipelines to belief-motivated film watchers. But while huge hits have ensued, such as the first of Walden and Disney's "Chronicles of Narnia" series in 2005, duds have proliferated as well, including last year's "Billy: The Early Years," about a young Billy Graham....

Sherwood Baptist Church pastors Stephen and Alex Kendrick tested and verified their homemade business model with "Facing the Giants," a high-school football drama that brought in $10 million in 2006 after an outlay of just $100,000. For "Fireproof," the brothers hired actor Kirk Cameron, a Christian celebrity, but only after grilling him about his moral integrity....The brothers also published "The Love Dare," a book that is a plot device in the movie and, now a best-seller, has been adopted as a marriage-enrichment curriculum in thousands of American churches.

...bad filmmaking turns off Christians just like everyone else. "Left Behind" movies starring Mr. Cameron appealed to eschatological certainty, for example, but the low-budget flicks couldn't mount special effects that did justice to the Apocalypse....