The true-life love story of Christian musician Jeremy Camp and his late wife, Melissa, gets off to a good start on opening night.
In a rare feat for a faith-based film, I Still Believe claimed first place at the U.S. box office on Friday night. The latest picture from the brother duo of Andrew Erwin and Jon Erwin, it brought in $4 million, according to estimates from Box Office Mojo, putting it ahead of the Vin Diesel flick Bloodshot, which earned $3.77 million.
Fans clearly liked what they saw, too, because I Still Believe earned an "A" CinemaScore from opening day moviegoers. That should translate into a strong inaugural weekend and the experts expect this movie to earn $11 million from Friday through Sunday.
While that would, indeed, be good, it would also fall well short of the Erwin Brothers' previous picture, the 2018 hit I Can Only Imagine, which raked in $17 million on its first weekend in theaters. And that movie, another biopic about a Christian musician - Bart Millard of Mercy Me - debuted in just over 1,600 theaters, whereas this latest movie is starting off in 3,250 venues.
I Still Believe, which we reviewed here, is the first film from the Erwins' new Kingdom Studios, a venture with Lionsgate, and it has some serious star power: K.J. Apa, Britt Robertson, country music great Shania Twain and Christian actors Gary Sinise and Cameron Arnett. Check back with Christian Film Blog Sunday night to find out how it finishes at the weekend box office.