I had seen two previous showings of the movie Fireproof prior to its release last weekend. Starring Kirk Cameron, Fireproof is the latest movie produced by Sherwood Baptist Church, in Albany, Georgia (population 164,000). Albany is a nice town, and Sherwood is a great Southern Baptist Church, but even churches in metropolises like Atlanta or Dallas are not in the business of producing successful Hollywood productions. Sherwood Baptist, however, has done this before--their movie Facing the Giants was a commercial success when it was released in 2006 (it ended up grossing more than 10 million in theatrical release).
I was even more impressed with Fireproof than with Facing the Giants (which is high praise indeed, because I was a big fan of that movie).
The audience a movie enjoys in its first weekend of release has tremendous impact on the ultimate success of a movie because it determines how long it stays in theaters and how many theaters ultimately will show it across the country. Consequently, you can imagine how eager I was to open my USA Today on Tuesday morning, Sept. 30, to see how Fireproof fared in its opening weekend, Sept. 26-28.
I was delighted to read that Fireproof debuted at No. 4 on the most-viewed movie list of this past weekend. Fireproof opened with $6.8 million in box office receipts. The film was on 839 screens across the country, for a per-screen average of $8,111.00, which is the second-highest weekend box office average of 2008 for films released on less than 1,000 screens (Hannah Montana in 3-D was the highest.)
Fireproof is the story of a firefighter whose marriage is on the verge of a breakup. As he belatedly seeks to save his marriage, he discovers it may well be too late. It is a powerful and well-made movie that will strengthen the marriage of the overwhelming majority of those who see it.
Also, it shows that there is a viable and untapped market for family-friendly films and films with a strong faith message. For more information about the movie and where it is currently being shown, go to www.fireproofthemovie.com.
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Diana Butler Bass is a religion scholar and author of Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith. She blogs at 
Tony Campolo is Professor Emeritus at Eastern University and author of The God of Intimacy and Action: Reconnecting Ancient Spiritual Practices, Evangelism, and Justice, with Mary Darling. He blogs at 
Rod Dreher is a columnist for The Dallas Morning News and author of Crunchy Cons: The New Conservative Counterculture and Its Return to Roots. He blogs at 
Bruce Feiler is the author of seven books, including Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses. He blogs at 
Dan Gilgoff is Politics Editor at Beliefnet and author of The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America are Winning the Culture War. He blogs at 
David Kuo served as a special assistant to President George W. Bush and is the author of Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction. He blogs at 
Dr. Richard Land is president of The Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and author of The Divided States of America? What Liberals AND Conservatives are missing in the God-and-country shouting match!
Michele McGinty is a mom and a student at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. She blogs at 
Brian McLaren is a pastor, musician, and author of Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope. He blogs at 
Steven Waldman is co-founder, CEO, and Editor-in-Chief of Beliefnet. His book Founding Faith will be published in March, and he can be reached through 
Jim Wallis is executive director of Sojourners/Call to Renewal and author of God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It. He blogs at
This is an excellent movie. I pray someday someone will write story or make a movie of my life. It's so like this movie or maybe 10 times more things to deal with....ha. Thanks for a real story, about real people, and real things that happen. May the Lord Bless and Keep You in all your coming and going and doing. In Jesus Name. Amen.
Thanks again for a GREAT movie.
Hi my name is Sara Trendiak i am 18 years old, i am from Canada, ON and so far all the movies i have watched which ia alot!...this movie is far my favorite, and even tho i am not married this movie had a huge inpack on my life... after i watched fireproof i started phoning all my friends and telling them about this movie...i even told my teacher at high school who is an atheist. i dont know why but theres something inside of me that wants to tell the whole world and how you need Jesus in your life..So i would like to Thank everyone who was involved in the making of this movie! You did such a GREAT JOB on the movie! :) Thank-You and keep praising God because he is so good!
May God Bless You!
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.