Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore board Jaume Collet-Serra's Non-Stop (reviews) flight of trouble; Just in time for Lent the Son of God (reviews) arrives.
Pamela McClintock of THR:
Faith-based audiences will play a starring role at the North American box office this weekend as 20th Century Fox debuts Son of God, the first of several biblical epics scheduled for 2014.
The film opens exactly a decade after Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ became an instant hit, opening to a massive $83.8 million on its way to earning $612 million worldwide. Son of God, lacking the controversy that Passion of the Christ sparked, isn't expected to match those numbers.
Son of God is an unusual offering. The movie, chronicling the life of Jesus Christ, was made using footage from Mark Burnett and Roma Downey's hit 10-hour television miniseries The Bible (the married couple are devout Christians). Deleted scenes from the miniseries also are featured.
Generally, Hollywood studios can use pre-release tracking to predict a film's opening, or at least provide a range. However, Christian films aren't as easy to track, hence Son of God could open anywhere between $14 million and $30 million, according to box-office observers. If it comes in on the high end, it could beat Oscar weekend's other new entry, Liam Neeson action-thriller Non-Stop (Neeson also lends his voice to holdover The Lego Movie, which could feasibly beat both new films).
Of any film, Son of God is arguably the most immune to Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony, which can take a substantial bite out of the box office.
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