ON A WING AND A PRAYER Producer On The Importance of Faith-Based Movies
By Movieguide® Contributor
Filmmaker Karl Horstmann says Hollywood is finally ready to start giving resources to Christian movies after seeing the box office success of projects like THE CHOSEN and JESUS REVOLUTION.
Horstmann produced two faith-based movies this year — ON A WING AND A PRAYER and SOUTHERN GOSPEL.
A portion of the Movieguide® review for ON A WING AND A PRAYER reads:
ON A WING AND A PRAYER has a strong Christian, moral, wholesome worldview, with powerful scenes of prayer. Doug and his family consistently pray to God for safety and in gratitude as they think landing the plane is impossible. Despite everything going wrong, their faith helps them overcome their fear in this miraculous true story. ON A WING AND A PRAYER has some intense action, a few light obscenities and a scene where an air traffic controller gets drunk. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger children.
In an interview with Christian Headlines, Horstmann explained that Christian movies are improving in quality due to an increase in resources.
“Hollywood looks at faith films now as a legitimate genre,” he said. “Even 10 years ago, they were not seen that way. I think they were most often seen as niche specialty films, and I think [the reason] the faith market has done so well is because the audiences have turned out to support these films in such big ways, in big numbers, like with I CAN ONLY IMAGINE.”
I CAN ONLY IMAGINE, inspired by the hit song of the same name, made $83 million at the box office.
Horstmann also pointed to JESUS REVOLUTION, which made $52 million at the box office.
“Those audiences have turned out,” he explained. “And Hollywood has taken note of that and said, ‘Hey, this is a legitimate genre, and we should treat it as such.’ So I think we’re seeing more and more resources poured into faith projects because of that. And I think that alone will elevate the quality of that entertainment and of those films.”
Horstmann continued, “I think as faith filmmakers, we have a message that we’re trying to just make people aware of — that God loves them. Without any judgment, God loves them, and we want to tell those stories to people so they realize that.”
