"Left Behind" sequel will premiere in pews
Filed under: Exhibition, Movie Marketing
Mel Gibson's success with The Passion of the Christ is affecting film marketing in many ways. Seems like everyone wants to find and court the audiences who flocked to last year's religious blockbuster ... except for maybe Rob Zombie.Most recently, Cloud Ten Pictures is trying a variation on Mel's promotional strategy with the third movie in the Left Behind series, based on the novels about post-Rapture America. You won't be able to see Left Behind: World at War in movie theaters. However, hundreds of churches around the country will screen the movie on DVD on the weekend before the October 25 DVD release. Churches will charge admission, although I suspect they won't sell concessions or show pre-movie ads. Cloud Ten believes that the church premieres will stimulate interest and word-of-mouth about the DVD without incurring the costs of a theatrical release.
I didn't realize there was even a first Left Behind movie; I guess I was too busy waiting for the resurrection of Terry Gilliam's career. So I didn't know that the movies all star Kirk Cameron, the former Growing Pains kid. Maybe he's hoping that audiences viewing his latest film in a church will pray for him to get better roles—he hasn't been in a movie that's had a theatrical release since 1989.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-21-2005 @ 9:16PM
Alex said...
Surprisingly enough, the first two Left Behind movies actually weren't too bad, and I'm not even a religious person.
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8-22-2005 @ 12:37PM
Joe Somebaddy said...
That's funny, I could make it past the first ten minutes of the first one. As to why Kirky has been out so long is he turned in the the most hardcore bible thumper ever to exist in Hollywood... (and he took his gorgeous wife with him)
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8-22-2005 @ 1:35PM
The Jeremy said...
I get these mixed up with the flick(s) starring that other great thespian Casper Van Dien and his gorgeous wife (and princess) Catherine Oxenberg, not to mention Michael York as Mr. Antichrist.
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