Jesus Revolution Goes International to Indonesia, U.K., Others: ‘The World Needs’ a Revival
Thanks to its box-office-hit success in the United States, Jesus Revolution is now showing in international markets, too.
Co-director John Erwin told Christian Headlines that the hit movie has been released in Singapore, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand, and is launching soon in the United Kingdom and Latin America.
The international market opened up, he said, thanks to its domestic success. The film grossed more than $52 million domestically and remained in the Top 10 for five weeks.
“Entertainment is America’s second-largest export behind agriculture,” Erwin told Christian Headlines. “So when you make something popular in the U.S., and when an audience really champions it, they send it around the world. And so a lot of Christians might not realize that as we support a film here, it enables a global release.”
Faith-based movies can be a powerful vehicle for spreading the gospel, Erwin added.
“A lot of people ask, are we just preaching to the choir? We found it’s actually the choir that launches the product,” he said. “The more the faith audience champions something, whether it’s our movie or The Chosen, they send it out. So really, if a big movie becomes successful, and you saw it in America, 10 other people are gonna see it around the world because of you. And I think that’s not something that people understand. It’s really cool.”
Jesus Revolution tells the story of a hippie-led revival in the 1960s/70s that launched in California and spread nationwide.
“The whole reason we made the movie was if God did it before it, God can do it again,” Erwin said. “The world needs a Jesus revolution, perhaps now more than any other time in my lifetime.”
It stars Jonathan Roumie (The Chosen) as Lonnie Frisbee, Kelsey Grammer (Cheers, Frasier) as Chuck Smith, Joel Courtney as Greg Laurie, Kimberly Williams-Paisley (Father of the Bride) as Laurie’s mother and Anna Grace Barlow as Laurie’s girlfriend and future wife Cathe. Brent McCorkle co-directed it alongside Erwin.
Related:
Jesus Revolution Climbs to No. 1 in America in DVD Sales: It ‘Caught Hollywood Off Guard’
Photo courtesy: ©Lionsgate, used with permission.
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
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