Christian groups are starting to buy thousands of tickets for the upcoming Jesus Christ film "Son of God."
The movie, which tells the story of the life and death of Jesus, is tracking well among Catholic audiences with 225,000 seats already purchased; Liberty University, the biggest Christian university, bought out an entire Regal Theater where the new film will be shown on 14 screens on opening night.
Half a million tickets have already been purchased and faith-oriented audiences have already stated that they will rent out entire theaters to view the film.
Liberty University told the Hollywood Reporter that the university gave away tickets by the thousands and emailed more than 100,000 people from the university community to promote the film. "We think it's an extraordinary product and for Christianity we think it's an historic moment. This is the first movie about life of Jesus in 50 years. It would be beneficial to people all across the country to see this on the big screen," said Liberty's senior Vice President of Communications Johnnie Moore.
Mark Burnett, producer of the film, also identified eight other churches and business leaders that had arranged for the film to be shown at certain times on multiple screens in multiplexes. He also said that the film was supposed to be seen by communities. "This movie is designed to be seen in communities. Therefore, it's the perfect venue for church groups to band together and watch 'Son of God' in a community. That's what's really happening," he said.
The movie was produced by Fox and will also release a dubbed Spanish version in the U.S., in part because the actor playing Jesus Christ is Diogo Morgado, a Portugese actor. Additionally, the Latin American community makes up a large part of the Christian community and that will help the film's box office.
Based on the amount of the tickets that have already been bought using the average ticket price of $8.13, "Son of God" may have already sold close to $4 million in box office revenue, which is already record-breaking for a movie not considered a blockbuster.
As impressive as the numbers are, the current tracking is not likely to match Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," which debuted in theaters to a record-breaking $83.8 million and later went on to make $370 million domestically.
The new movie has not been plagued with controversy yet as not many people have seen it. However, if there is something controversial about the film it may help create interest beyond Christian faith groups. "Son of God" could end up closer to the box office of the recently released "The Nativity Story" based on the current reports. "The Nativity Story" obtained mixed reviews and had attention from Christian groups but only managed to make $37 million. That movie was targeted for Christmas while this year's "Son of God" arrives in time for Lent and Easter, one of the most important Christian holidays.
This year marks the return of the Biblical epic with "Noah" coming out a few weeks after and "Exodus" being released in December. All three films are based on the Bible and if "Son of God" is successful it could lead to big box offices for the next two. However, "Noah" is currently tracking badly with Christian faith groups and that could hurt its chances of having a great box office.