SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (March 24, 2014) – Pure Flix announced today that their film GOD’S NOT DEAD opened with a stellar per screen average of nearly $12,000 and ranked #4 of all movies released the weekend ending March 23, 2014. Amid a flood of other faith-‐based movies, GOD’S NOT DEAD’s per screen average is an all-‐time high for wide release Christian films.
Only showing on 780 screens in its debut weekend among many other releases on over 3,000 screens, GOD’S NOT DEAD outperformed virtually all movies on a per screen average basis and was sold out in many locations prompting theaters to add additional show times and larger rooms.
Pure Flix and Freestyle Releasing are adding hundreds of runs for the second week, bringing the total number of theaters to approximately 1,000.
“Demand for GOD’S NOT DEAD in the faith-‐based community has been significant because the message is culturally relevant to millions of Americans,” said David A.R. White, Managing Partner of Pure Flix and an actor in the film playing Reverend Dave. “As Variety noted this weekend, GOD’S NOT DEAD is providing content for much underserved audience and Pure Flix exists to help fill that void.”
Termed the “biggest surprise” of the weekend by Entertainment Weekly and the “biggest shocker” of the weekend by Variety, GOD’S NOT DEAD’s success did not surprise Pure Flix.
“We’ve seen for months a huge interest among consumers in GOD’S NOT DEAD, evidenced by our massive social media fan base which has over 1 million followers on Facebook,” said Michael Scott, Managing Partner of Pure Flix. “Our grassroots marketing efforts encompassing the church, social media, events and publicity were laser focused on our core market. That focus, coupled with the overt faith-‐based message of this film, contributed to its success.”
Pure Flix began with the end in mind. “We developed the script then commissioned a book by the same title with the arguments presented in the movie to debut a year ahead of the film. We felt the Newsboys’ popular song ‘God’s Not Dead’ was the perfect title and incorporated them as well as Willie and Korie Robertson of Duck Commander and fan favorite Kevin Sorbo (HERCULES, SOUL SURFER) into the script,” said Russell Wolfe, Managing Partner of Pure Flix. “Our team worked hard to activate the faith-‐ based audience and we poured everything we had into making GOD’S NOT DEAD a film the audience could rally around. We’re thrilled to see how a lot of prayer and hard work are affecting lives around the nation.”
