"Heaven Is For Real," a faith-based movie, made big bucks this past weekend during the Easter holiday. The movie, which cost $12 million to make, earned a stellar $21.5 million from 2,417 theaters according to the Hollywood Reporter. "Heaven Is For Real" beat out Johnny Depp's huge budget sci-fic movie "Transcendence," which cost $100 million to make, opened to a weak $11.5 million from 3,455 locations this past weekend.
Meanwhile, "Captain America" continued to stay at No. 1 for its third consecutive weekend: the superhero movie grossed $26.6 million from 3,825 locations. After Easter weekend, the film hit the $200 million mark in the U.S. and $586.6 million worldwide. In second place, Fox's animated movie "Rio 2" grossed $22.5 million at 3,975 locations in its second weekend; it rung up a total of $75.4 million.
"Heaven Is for Real" is at third place and is another Christian film which greatly exceeded expectations. It's clear that the movie's release on Easter weekend was a big plus for the film. The movie is from Sony's TriStar label; it opened last Wednesday and earned an impressive $28.5 million in its first five days of release. The movie is produced by pastor T. D. Jakes and directed by Randall Wallace. "Heaven Is for Real" stars stars Greg Kinnear, Kelly Reilly, Jacob Vargas and Nancy Sorel. The movie earned an A rating by CinemaScore
The movie is about the real-life story of small town Nebraska pastor Todd Burpo (Kinnear), whose four year old son, Colton, tells him that he found himself in heaven during an emergency surgery. Burpo's son tells him about looking down to see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family does not know what to believe, but Colton shares details that would be impossible for him to know as no one had told him. He says that in Heaven, he met his miscarried sister whom no one had ever told him about and his great-grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born. Colton also goes on to describe the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how "reaaally big" God is, and how the Holy Spirit "shoots down power" from heaven to help people. The film is adapted from Burpo's book of the same name which was co-written with Lynn Vincent.
Sony's distribution chief Rory Brue said, "It's really a terrific result. And Easter was certainly a date that was in the wheelhouse of the film."
