The director behind \u201cI Can Only Imagine,\u201d the biggest faith-based movei of last year, has shared how the film used by God all over the world to bring people to Himself \u2013 even in China, where persecution remains severe.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a movie is a hit in America\u2026.it goes on global autopilot,\u201d John Erwin explained at the recent National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Anaheim, California. \u201cSo all these countries around the world begin to pay you for the right to translate and distribute your movie. So, it\u2019s the Gospel on for-profit autopilot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Erwin pointed out that in the same year that China actually restricted\u2026.Christianity and \u201cWestern\u201d influences and religion. \u201cI find it very interesting that in the same year that China actually restricted\u2026.Christianity, they paid for \u201cI Can Only Imagine,\u201d he said. \u201cThey paid for the right to tramslate it and distribute it to their people. That\u2019s what happened in over 100 countries around the world with out films.\u201d<\/p>\n
Erwin explained that faith-based movies \u2013 especially those backed by an American audience \u2013 present an opportunity to spread the Gospel through the medium of film.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happen is, when you watch a movie in America, and you buy your ticket, and that movei becomes a hit, you\u2019re pretty much guaranteed that 10 people around the world are going to see it on your behalf because of these incredible things called output deals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd in fact, there\u2019s a lot of places around the world where you can do more in a movie theatre than you can do openly on the streets. It\u2019s incredible how far the message gets.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the movie\u2019s summary, \u201cI Can Only Imagine\u201d is the \u201ctrue story that follows the life of Bart Millard, lead singer of Chritian band MercyMe, whose father died of cancer and inspires him to write the mega-hit song, \u201cI Can Only Imagine.\u201d The story beautifully illustrates that nobody is ever too far from God\u2019s love \u2013 or too far from an eternal home in Heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Erwin brothers\u2019 2018 film grossed $85 million worldwide against a production budget of $7 million, becoming the fourth highest-grosising music biopic of all-time in the United States.<\/p>\n
Following the film success, Andy and Jon Erwin announced the formation of a production venture called \u201cKingdom Studios,\u201d which will work alongside Lionsgate to distribute well-produced faith-based movies into the mainstream. The brothers have four titles currently in the works, including \u201cI Still Believe,\u201d which will tell the story of Christian singer Jeremy Camp, who lost his wife to ovarian cancer less than a year after they married.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to build our own name, we want to build the Kingdom,\u201d Erwin explained. \u201cWe want to tell stories that strategically brought people to the Gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Culled from Gospel Herald<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The director behind \u201cI Can Only Imagine,\u201d the biggest faith-based movei of last year, has shared how the film used by God all over the world to bring people to Himself \u2013 even in China, where persecution remains severe. \u201cWhen a movie is a hit in America\u2026.it goes on global autopilot,\u201d John Erwin explained at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"0","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books-and-films"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions\/329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}