Two religious themed movies are out right now.  Fireproof and Religulous.  Fireproof is the film created and directed by Sherwood Church (story) and Religulous is the “mockumentary” of religion in America.  (Religulous Movie site, complete with a link to Disbelief Net, a take off on Beliefnet.)

Screenrant, a movie and TV web site, has a interesting piece up regarding the two.  One thing that jumped out at me was the economics.  From Screenrant…

What I found to be completely unexpected is the fact that Fireproof has earned twice as much at the box office as Religulous.

Both opening weekend box office numbers and total to date are as close to two-to-one as you can get. On their respective opening weekends (one week apart), the barely advertised Fireproof earned $6.8 million while the highly advertised Religulous earned only $3.4 million. As of the date of this post the numbers are $23.6MM vs $10.6MM.

And let’s not even get into the profit margin side of things. Fireproof had an ROI of $46 for every dollar spent while Religulous earned $4 for every dollar (probably less, if marketing is considered).

And also from the same piece, the author talks about his reaction after viewing Fireproof…

And personally, I found it extremely moving and that surprised me big time.

Now if someone shows up to see this film who is a hard core athiest or an anti-religion/anti-Christian person, they’re going to hate it and its heavy slathering of “the message” starting at about the half way point. However for those who can set that aside, you’ll find a very emotionally intense film about the attempt of an estranged husband trying desperately to keep his marriage together. (Source)

Finally, a little Fireproof and Kirk Cameron trivia for you.  Did you know that…

Kirk Cameron, a Christian evangelist, refuses to kiss any woman other than his wife. To film a scene in which his character in this movie kisses his wife, the filmmakers had to dress Cameron’s real-life wife, Chelsea Noble, as the wife character (played throughout the rest of the movie by Erin Bethea) and shoot the kissing scene in shadow so the difference between Noble and Bethea would not be as evident on screen.  (Source)