‘The King of Kings’ Crushes Expectations at Box Office Proving Power of Faith-Based Films
Weeks after Easter, a new faith-based movie out of Hollywood continues to do well at the box office. Angel Studios’ cartoon, “The King of Kings,” quickly surpassed its approximately $25 million price tag, making $19 million in its first week and $17 million in its second. As of last week, it topped $64 million and is on track to outpace the opening weeks of the epic 1998 DreamWorks movie, “The Prince of Egypt.”
“King of Kings” retells the story of Christ and is based loosely on the 1840s Charles Dickens book, The Life of Our Lord. Its impressive cast includes Oscar Isaac as Jesus, Pierce Brosnan as Pilate, Kenneth Branagh as Dickens, Forest Whitaker as Peter, and Mark Hamill as King Herod.
Opening week stats like these should encourage studios, execs, and producers to continue to invest in Christian-friendly filmmaking. Clearly, audience interest is there. And Hollywood heavy hitters are interested in taking the roles.
Part of its success, and other recent productions in the same genre, is that it portrays biblical characters as real-life human beings, along with their frailties, ambitions, and personalities. “The Chosen,” the popular, crowd-funded series about Jesus and the disciples, is now in its fourth season, with a reported three more to go. Its portrayal of the Gospel accounts takes considerable license with backstories and character development, but also feels more real than the overly sanitized Bible films of the past. It’s a tradeoff with tight margins.
The new Amazon series, “The House of David,” takes a similar approach, offering a very human and realistic portrayal of the Old Testament king and shepherd boy. Like “The Chosen,” the actors look like they’re from the Middle East. In fact, the actor playing King Saul is from Nazareth. The accents are a bit tougher to nail down.
In the storytelling of “The House of David,” the Amalekites are not portrayed as innocent victims, and Saul’s palace has all the intrigue and drama of a mafia movie. The realism is not only refreshing and compelling, it’s believable. It gives confidence to the audience that the biblical events portrayed really happened.
That of course is the most important part of the biblical story. It’s true. The Christian Story of a created, perfect, and loved world broken by humans but made right again because of the work of the Creator is an epic tale. It’s also the best account of reality as it actually is. The Story of a righteous Hero Who sacrifices His life to restore His kingdom and for the honor of His Name is the Story of the World. That’s why it’s the Story by which all other good stories are based.
The Story can be told in four chapters. The world was created, establishing the realities of truth, beauty, and goodness, as well as the essential nature of human beings to reflect the Creator. Then the world, created good, falls to sin. The Bible explains that something went wrong with God’s good world, and that something was us, mankind. Thank God, the story does not end with evil and sorrow and brokenness. In Christ, God redeemed His image bearers so that now, they can be agents of restoration. Creation, the Fall, Redemption, Restoration. This is the Story, and in it there is hope, not as wishful thinking, but as a certainty that the One telling the Story of the world will one day, finally, make all sad things untrue.
The success of the Bible in pop culture is evidence that, as much as we may try to reject it in our sin and cultural rebellions, this Story of the world cannot be fully suppressed. We need not update, massage, embellish, or water down the message of the Bible. It’s already the best Story in history. It is, in fact, the Story of history.
As Richard John Neuhaus wrote many years ago,
We Christians, you see, have it, this coherent, compelling, comprehensive story of the world. It is the only one on the world stage today that is filled with promise, for it is the promise of God Himself that the human project ultimately will not fail.
Photo Courtesy: ©Angel Studios
Published Date: May 15, 2025
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
