What Makes a Movie ‘Christian,’ Anyway?

Lost in all the Hunger Games brouhaha this weekend was the remarkably strong debut of October Baby.

The film details both the literal and spiritual journey of an abortion survivor—not exactly the sort of premise that you’d expect would pack ’em into theaters. It was the first film ever for directors Jon and Andrew Erwin, who (from what I understand from our review) might not have made the movie at all had it not been for the influence of the makers of Fireproof and Courageous. It opened on just 390 screens—less than a tenth of what Games debuted on.

And yet, the film managed to pocket $1.7 million in its first three days of business. In terms of per-screen take, October Baby’s $4,352 average lagged only behind Games and 21 Jump Street for the week’s top 10 movies (Baby finished eighth). Not bad for a small Christian film.

But Baby’s success got me thinking a bit about what exactly a “Christian” film is. Is it the content? The marketing? The heart of the producers? The religious affiliation of the actors? Do studios have to check a box on some sort of standardized “genre form” that I’m unaware of?

If you look at Box Office Mojo’s list of films in the “Christian” genre, here’s what you’ll find. Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ tops ’em all with a $371 million domestic take. In the Top 10, you’ll find the three Chronicles of Narnia films, the two VeggieTales flicks, two releases from Sherwood Pictures (Courageous and Fireproof) and a couple others (The Nativity Story and One Night with the King).

All the selections sorta make sense at first. When it comes to Christian films, we adhere to a “we know ’em when we see ’em” philosophy. But when we delve deeper, the list looks a bit—random.

About those Chronicles of Narnia films. Oh sure, the source books were written by a well-known apologist (C.S. Lewis) and were intended as Christian allegory. But for those who don’t tap into that allegory, how much explicitly Christian content is in the movies? How many times are verses quoted? How many explicit references to Jesus do we hear?

How do those measure up in a quantifiable “Christian genre” way to, say, the works of Tyler Perry? Perry’s a Christian, but no one’s ever accused him of being a “Christian director.” Yet, most of his movies are quite spiritual in their own way (though filled with questionable content). And where’s The Book of Eli? It delves into the miraculous beauty of the Bible, gives us a look of a man transformed by it. It’s also quite violent. Does its R rating disqualify a film from being Christian? And then what do we make of The Passion of the Christ?

Maybe the source material is a lock to get on the list. And certainly, Box Office Mojo includes several films based on the Bible. But Charlton Heston’s blockbuster The Ten Commandments didn’t make the cut. Neither did Ben Hur, which features the closest thing I’ve seen to an alter call outside the corner Baptist church.

Is it possible that someone could opt out of the genre? Steve Taylor, director of the upcoming film Blue Like Jazz, would like to, if that’s an option. Sure, the film’s based on a Christian book, directed by a Christian and filled with oodles of spiritual themes. But Taylor’s been quite vocal about not wanting his creation to be labeled a “Christian movie.”

It’s all very confusing to me. And I wonder at times what purpose the Christian label serves when it comes to movies. Does it expand a given film’s reach? Or does it restrict it?

In the end, maybe it’s a little bit of both. I kinda think that, in the case of a film like October Baby, the Christian label is initially an aid to getting a worthy film out in the marketplace and seen by a certain audience. Many Christians, not wanting to sit through The Hunger Games this weekend, were given a viable and worthwhile alternative. They might never have considered it had it not been for the genre label. They might’ve turned to each other and said, “October Baby—what’s that? Some sort of docudrama on Reggie Jackson’s childhood?”

But at the same time, the story itself has such resonance that I kinda wish more folks—who wouldn’t necessarily be the type to see a Christian movie—would see it.

And in the end, that’s the biggest problem with the “Christian” genre: The folks who’d benefit most from Christian movies are the ones least likely to see them.