Fireproof

The creators of FACING THE GIANTS, Alex and Stephen Kendrick, have a new movie coming out this Friday called FIREPROOF.

It’s the story of a young couple whose seven year marriage is on the verge of collapse. The protagonist, played by Kirk Cameron, is a fireman who seems to be a hero to everybody but his own wife. His dad gives him a journal and asks that he not go through with the divorce for forty days while he undertakes the Love Dare, a series of steps he can use to save his marriage.

The movie opens this weekend, September 26th, and I urge everyone to go see it.

Many people don’t realize how important opening weekend is for a film. This is the one sure way we can vote with our dollars to let Hollywood know what kind of movies we want. If a movie doesn’t ‘catch on’ and do well opening weekend, it is often gone within the next week or two, especially a ‘smaller’ movie like this one.

I think this is part of what happened with THE NATIVITY STORY a couple of years back. Too many people I talked to about it told me they wanted to see it, but it was gone before they could get to the theater. If all those people had been there opening weekend, it might have been a different story. Hollywood sees this lack of enthusiasm -- and dollars -- and next time a biblically oriented story comes up, they pass.

THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST opened a lot of doors in Hollywood that are slowly closing again because nothing’s come close to the success of that movie. We have the power not to let that happen. We might not see another phenomenon like PASSION, but we can still flex our movie viewing muscles to support the kind of fare we’d like to see instead of the sex and violence Hollywood too often churns out.

The Kendricks’ previous movie, FACING THE GIANTS, a story of football and redemption, turned into a surprising success story. The movie was made for a measly $100,000. And yet this little movie-that-could earned $10 million! That’s how you get Hollywood to sit up and take notice. Because of that, the Kendricks were able to get a budget of $500,000 this time around and FIREPROOF will open in over 800 theaters this Friday.

What’s even more fun for us Christians is that Alex and Stephen Kendrick are associate pastors at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. Through the power of an emotional, entertaining story, they hope to help married couples keep their marriages intact and strong. Alex has also written a companion book, THE LOVE DARE, that lays out the steps for the 40 day love dare shown in the movie. According to John Thompson of B&H Publishing Group “The Love Dare is the fastest selling book we’ve ever handled.”

Check out the movie trailer at the FIREPROOF website. For more info on The Love Dare and fireproofing your own marriage check out Fireproof My Marriage.

And hie thee to the movies this weekend.