The last time he promised 1,500 screens
He has sold a Bible epic this way before. In April 2014 Chey told The Christian Post that David and Goliath would be “biblically correct in every way.” A publicist’s advisory that month called it a $50 million production with “thousands of extras, A-list special effects,” and a look that would “exceed the epic-look of Noah.” Chey said they would have advertising money “for a 1,500 theater release.”
On Good Friday 2015 it opened in 31 cities. The Numbers has the three-week domestic total at $316,117. An Indiegogo campaign meant to widen the run asked for $777,000 and closed at $19,653. IMDb still has the film at 3.9. Martin Stillion, reviewing it on Peter T. Chattaway’s Patheos Filmchat, called the Hollywood-rejected-us campaign “mendacious” and wrote that the movie “makes God’s Not Dead look like Blade Runner.”
In that Christian Post interview Chey already had an explanation for the mockery. “We were constantly being ridiculed by the secular media, our films were being sabotaged by online piracy, and fellow jealous Christians were mocking us saying the acting was bad, script was horrible,” he told Stoyan Zaimov. “The Lord showed me clearly it was a spiritual attack.” Then he said that within two months “we raised millions of dollars and made the $20 million dollar Carry Me Home,” the Cuba Gooding Jr. picture later released as Freedom. Peter Cousens directed that one. Chey wrote it. Arc Entertainment put it out day-and-date in June 2015. He has not published audited costs for either film.
When a bad review becomes a soul
The faith-film blog Thimblerig’s Ark kept the quotes that came after. Chey told interviewers one of his weaknesses was “not loving those carnal Christian movie critics who continually stab Christian filmmakers in the back.” He pictured them rolling their eyes at altar calls, then said “the true horror will be on Judgment Day when Christ says to them, ‘Depart from me for I never knew you.’”
You can still hear that argument under his titles on IMDb. Sermon-length user reviews of David and Goliath walk through Matthew 7 and the fruits of the Spirit, then tell one-star posters they might not be saved. After Suing the Devil, Chey told The Christian Post that a group calling itself “anonymous Atheists” had promised to “mob attack” the page, and that the score dropped from seven to four in three days. In 2013 he sued Netflix for at least $10 million because the site put a Save button on the film and then declined to carry it. He called that “the most egregious act ever committed by a film distributor.” TheWrap reported that a federal judge dismissed the case with prejudice.
A pan, in this telling, is never just a pan. It is sabotage, or a mob, or evidence that the critic is unsaved. The budgets on the posters stay where he put them.
Watch the smoke
The March trailer runs two minutes and twenty-nine seconds. The file on YouTube is 360p, which is a strange resolution for a picture being sold at $22 million. It opens on a man in a striped robe standing on a ridge above a city. The camera pushes in for several seconds, and the fire on the far hill barely changes shape. The smoke to his left does not drift so much as sit there. Later the film cuts to a canyon temple lined with giant seated statues and thousands of torches, a shot that looks like it wandered in from a different Bible.
Then come the scripture cards, and they share a citation they should not. One card prints “I will wipe them off the face of the earth” and tags it Genesis 6:6. That wiping is 6:7. A later card prints “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” and tags that Genesis 6:6 as well. That sentence is 6:8. Genesis 6:6 is the verse where the Lord regrets making humankind. Chey sold David and Goliath on being biblically correct in every way. The Flood trailer cites the same verse number for two different sentences.
Two weeks out
Daniel and the Fiery Furnace opened yesterday. Harkins and Cinemark had Thursday previews listed a week ahead of time. The Flood is the next dated faith title on a calendar, and the publicity around it has been loud. Unlimited Publicity, the faith-based firm working the movie, has spent the year sending ACCESS Newswire items about a “rousing ovation” at the National Religious Broadcasters convention, a “wow factor” at SXSW, and an Oscar-caliber turn from Sorbo. The trailer played CinemaCon in April. What has not shown up is a list of theaters. You do not raise advertising money in September for a 3,000-screen opening that is already booked.
Chey has been working this circuit for a long time. Final: The Rapture grossed $124,561. He told Religion News Service then that 70 to 80 percent of the people in his theaters “don’t go to other movies.” That audience only helps if they can find a showtime. The open question on The Flood is still the simple one: where, on which Friday, can anyone buy a seat.
