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‘Letters to God’ No. 10 on opening weekend

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Updated with actuals

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–“Letters to God,” the faith-based movie about an 8-year-old boy with cancer who mails letters to the Lord, finished in the Top 10 on its opening weekend.

The debut film from Possibility Pictures grossed $1.1 million, according to numbers posted at BoxOfficeMojo.com. Among the top 10 films, it also finished 10th in a per-theater average.

Because it debuted in only 897 theaters — a third or a fourth of the number of theaters a big Hollywood picture would open in — the per-theater average is closely watched. By that standard, Letters to God finished below the per-theater numbers of recent faith movies such as “Fireproof” (2008) and “Facing the Giants” (2006). Those two movies — made by Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga. — opened with a per-theater average of $8,148 and $3,046, respectively, with Fireproof’s numbers no doubt helped by the success of Sherwood’s earlier film. Letters to God’s per-theater average was $1,228. It did fare better than another faith-based movie, the 2008 film “Billy Graham: The Early Years,” which averaged $681 per theater its first weekend.

Letters to God has received positive reviews from many Christian reviewers, including Baptist Press film critic Phil Boatwright, who said it was a “triumph” and “one of the best films you and your family will see all year.”

The movie was inspired by a true story of a family from Grace Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn.
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Compiled by Michael Foust, an assistant editor of Baptist Press. To read BP’s past stories about Letters to God, visit www.bpnews.net and search for “Letters to God” (with the name of the movie in quotes).

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