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Talk about faith-based film promotion suddenly became en vogue after the success of The Passion of The Christ, but, with recent duds like Evan Almighty appealing to the faithful but dying at the box office, commentators have begun to question whether The Passion was truly a sign of change or merely a fluke. Religion columnist Terry Mattingly points to another recent box office bust—The Ultimate Gift—as another faith-based flop.

The movie—starring Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin—was released on the Fox Faith imprint, something that Mattingly says could be a kiss of death. The pivotal moment was when this 20th Century Fox project was moved to the new Fox Faith division, which meant The Ultimate Gift was sent to theaters with all kinds of faith-based strings attached. The Fox Faith website states, "To be part of Fox Faith, a movie has to have overt Christian content or be derived from the work of a Christian author."

Continues Mattingly: "Thus, mainstream critics were determined to find the moral messages and make sure potential moviegoers were warned in advance. This also meant that mainstream performers such as Academy Award nominee James Garner, veteran character actor Brian Dennehy and the young actress Abigail Breslin of 'Little Miss Sunshine' discovered that they were—surprise, surprise—starring in a "Christian movie."

The Ultimate Gift producer Rick Eldridge blames the film's poor performance on the Fox Faith label, saying that the connotations of "Christian movies" caused "some people to distance themselves" from the film.

Meanwhile, CT Movies editor Mark Moring opined on the topic in his newsletter last week.

Rich Swingle working on Chariots of Fire sequel (The Scotsman)
Beyond the Chariots trailer may debut at 2008 Olympics

Bill Maher's religion documentary dubbed Religulous (TIFF site)
Trailer to premier at Toronto International Film Festival

Ben Stein to star in Expelled (Film Stew)
Intelligent design documentary promoted by Motive Entertainment

New documentary talks Mormonism, politics (Daily Herald)
Republican hopeful Romney a chief focus of film

Matt Zoller Seitz considers Owen Wilson (The House Next Door)
Reflections from a fellow Dallas native

Patrick Moore takes issue with 11th Hour (Vancouver Sun)
Greenpeace co-founder displeased with DiCaprio documentary

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