As Hollywood aims to cash in on faith-based content, let’s not get duped.
Thoughts for audiences and creators as a new era of faith-focused content is upon us.
Hollywood is projecting doom. It will be “a year of chaos,” the industry predicts, especially for big studios.
But as big studios and big money feel stress, content producers that focus on faith and values have a much more hopeful outlook.
There's been some major news in the world of faith-focused content so far in 2024. Amazon's recent commitment to produce faith-based series should bring some hope to audiences who like faith-focused content and to the creators who make it.
The tech giant’s multi-year, multi-million dollar commitment to be the home of the new series House of David is a landmark moment. It brings together emerging studios like The Kingdom Story Company and Dallas Jenkins, whose disruptive Chosen series continues to affirm that the market wants scripture-based content.
As indie studios like UnveilTV prepare to bring Biblical film series to life, producers have more options to shop their content.
Studios like Angel continue to surprise the market too. Not only Christians are taking notice—Variety, Deadline and other entertainment outlets are reporting the news. In part, because they can’t ignore the success or audience-driven model of films like Sound of Freedom, which continues to defy any expectations, topping over $250 million at the global box office and surpassing massively successful Hollywood films and franchises (like Indiana Jones, Mission Impossible and the Godfather).
There’s more investment than ever in original, faith-focused content and more competition coming in the space.
Faith and family content, one hopes, could flourish.
Lessons learned from the dot-com revolution matter here
But let’s make sure we create stories of real quality and substance.
In the 90s, the dot-com boom saw the rapid growth of “junk brands” that had nothing real to back them up. The economy crumbled and it took the junk brands with it.
The same could be true with faith-focused films and series. There will be plenty of excitement and desire to cash in on faith and family content, but will there be a real passion to build content and distribution channels that actually serve the audiences that desire the content?
In the rush for big success, let’s hope the studios and investors don't make the same mistakes of the dot-com boom. The worst case scenario is that they swoop in, make quick money, leverage audiences hungry for meaningful content with poor quality junk food that doesn’t really nourish.
Strong stories that serve their audiences will, ultimately, stand out in the market and stand the test of time. And those stories will be nurtured, faithfully, by people who love and serve both the audience and their craft.
It’s an exciting time for value-driven, faith-focused audiences and content makers. But let’s not get duped.
Let’s demand and create great stories.
The grass withers and the flowers fade (Hollywood) but the Word of the Lord lasts forever. In other words, faith films have a real promise :)