With a $740,000 Tuesday gross, +2% from Monday, Fathom Events’ slightly surprising holiday season overperformer Christmas With the Chosen: The Messengers crossed the $10 million mark in its first week. The film, a feature-length installment of a popular streaming series which tells the story of Jesus’ birth from the point of view of Joseph and Mary, has set records for Fathom, including biggest opening weekend ($4.28 million Fri-Sun/$9.18 million Wed-Sun) and $1.5 million in pre-sales during the first 12 hours of availability. The film topped the daily box office on Wednesday ($2.7 million) and Thursday ($2.2 million) and placed second yesterday ($725,000) behind Encanto.

With $10.645 million over seven days, it has already passed (or will pass today) the lifetime totals of The Last Duel ($10.9 million), Last Night In Soho ($10.1 million), Cry Macho ($10.2 million). Once it tops $13.5 million and King Richard, it’ll have passed every awards season Oscar contender thus far save for Dune, House of Gucci and (presumably) West Side Story. The musical religious melodrama will expand nationwide and extend its run through (at least) December 12, although I’m guessing it might stick around if it doesn’t drop like a rock in weekend two.

Credit a comparatively niche fanbase (the show itself, not the Christian faith) pulling folks who otherwise might not see all that many movies in theaters during a given year. Extreme examples from years past include the 2004 double-whammy of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (whose $372 million domestic success obviously inspired decades of imitators) and Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 ($119 million). I’d also include Demon Slayer The Movie ($45 million domestic and $500 million worldwide) in this category.

And, once again, it shows that faith-based movies that play as more welcoming and aspirational (think Heaven Is For Real, The Shack or Breakthrough) play better than arguable persecution complex flicks like Saving Christmas or October Baby. There are exceptions (God’s Not Dead earned $60 million in 2014 and Unplanned grossed $21 million in 2019), but upworthy/Veggie Tales-type moral melodramas from major studios (Lionsgate and Sony) like I Can Only Imagine generally perform better than Persecution.

As depressing as it might be for film nerds that a movie like this to out-gross a deluge of non-sequel/non-franchise/non-tentpole flicks in 2021, it is a refreshing that the mere existence of an established property being made into a movie is still a theatrical event. Most of the time, it’s an adaptation, think Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers or Mission: Impossible. The Messengers is a theatrical extension of an existing Christmas With the Chosen continuity. Think, offhand, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, X-Files: Fight the Future, Downton Abbey, etc.

It’s also a viable stand-alone entertainment for those who haven’t watched the show. I haven’t seen the film, but I’m guessing it’s more newbie-friendly than Mugen Train. Seeing that one on opening night with my kid (a fan) sans any knowledge of the show was an *adventure.* It’s not an impossible sell (Paramount

PGRE
succeeded with Sonic the Hedgehog) but theatrical movies aren’t comparatively considered the pop culture promotion that they once were.

Streaming television is often considered the ideal medium for adaptation and big-screen movies no longer hold the cultural cachet which they once did. As a result, it often feels that Hollywood is chasing previously successful properties (like how Detective Pokémon got greenlit during the Pokémon GO!-mania of 2016) so they can soak in the established awareness/fandom, not so they can anoint a given property as a big deal by virtue of it getting a movie. Theatrical moviegoing isn’t the pop culture kingmaker that it once was, even if we get enough successes like Demon Slayer, Downton Abbey and now Christmas with the Chosen to keep hope alive.