The second most populous country in the Western Hemisphere is a growing market for American Christian movies.
As Overcomer, the sixth feature from Stephen Kendrick and Alex Kendrick, winds down its theatrical run here in North America, it is just one week away from its debut in Brazil. And that is a country the Kendrick Brothers and Affirm Films, Sony Picture's faith-based division and the studio behind this movie, take very seriously; so seriously, in fact, that Alex - the director, star and co-writer - traveled to Rio de Janiero earlier in the week for the premiere.
With approximately 208 million citizens, Brazil trails only America in population in this hemisphere and has 125 million more people than the largest country in Europe, provided one doesn't consider Russia part of that continent. A predominantly Catholic nation, Brazil also has a large and growing evangelical community and enjoys an increasingly dynamic economy.
So what does all of that mean for imports from the American Christian movie scene? Big business, as a bit of anecdotal box office evidence makes clear. Breakthrough, the top earner in the genre in the U.S. this year, took home $5.9 million in Brazil, a full 61% of its international revenue and nearly 12% of the total worldwide haul. And the Kendrick Brothers' previous movie - the 2015 hit, War Room - brought in $2 million in that country, which was almost 40% of all international ticket sales.
Though Overcomer has underperformed that picture - $34.7 million versus $67.8 in domestic revenue - we suspect it will beat the ratio in Brazil. Not only was Alex Kendrick dispatched there to help market the picture, but the studio attached Gabriela Rocha to sing Lauren Daigle's You Say - the film's anthem song - in Portuguese for the Brazilian version.
Never heard of her? We hadn't either, but an awful lot of Brazilians certainly have, because the Sao Paulo-born Christian singer is a huge star. How huge? She's got 4.3 million followers on Instagram, which is more than double the number of followers Daigle has! So how did the filmmakers land her for this, you ask. Just so happens that back in 2017 Rocha signed with Sony Music. Oh, yeah! Gotta love it when you have the power of a global media conglomerate like Sony behind you. Praise God the Kendrick Brothers do and it will work to His glory.
Overcomer launches in theaters in Brazil next Thursday, November 21st. Christian Film Blog will keep an eye on it and have an update once the box office numbers roll in.