‘WAR ROOM’ Faith film mounts an attack on box office

By LINDSEY BAHR

AP Film Writer

LOS ANGELES

Faith-based movies that succeed at the box office shouldn’t be a surprise anymore, but “War Room,” a Christian family drama about marriage, has proved to be somewhat miraculous.

After “War Room” nearly beat “Straight Outta Compton” in its opening weekend, it defied expectations in its second week in theaters and rose to the top spot over the holiday weekend. Its strongest day wasn’t the opening either. It was Labor Day – a full 11 days after “War Room” was released – that saw the most people buying tickets.

“That’s just not supposed to happen,” said Rich Peluso, senior vice president of Sony’s AFFIRM Films, which produced “War Room” with Provident Films. “I could certainly fudge it and tell you how smart we are and how we predicted this but no, everybody is surprised.”

This is the latest success from Christian filmmakers and brothers Alex and Stephen Kendrick, whose 2008 film “Fireproof” earned more than $33 million on a $500K budget, and 2011’s “Courageous,” which took in $34.5 million on a $2 million budget. “War Room” already is well on its way to surpassing both.

As of Tuesday, “War Room,” which cost $3.5 million to produce, has earned $28.7 million.

Many are seeing it multiple times and bringing back their family and groups of friends, Peluso said. Also, when the film came so close to beating “Compton,” there was a concerted effort by AFFIRM and religious leaders to encourage supporters to turn out and help make it No. 1.

“It’s just a great story of a film that really filled a void in the marketplace, with a message that the audience could really get behind,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box office tracker Rentrak.

“There is a huge contingency of the American population who do not go to movies. They have been burned too many times,” Stephen Kendrick said. “Christians love good movies, but too often their faith is ridiculed or mocked... Alex and I are trying to make the kind of movies that we want to go see.”