Miracles from Heaven came out this weekend and it performed much better at the box office than expected. It made $15 million over the weekend on a $13 million budget and $18.7 million total. Garner has been promoting the film all over the place, but more than that it has a built-in audience with the high percentage of Americans who identify as Christians, particularly the devout Christians. It’s got a certified rotten rating of 54% on Rotten Tomatoes, but Allegiant is at 10% so it could be worse, you know? People know what they’re getting with these schmaltzy religious movies and they’re willing to pay for that. I’m more into science and apocalyptic films but there are plenty of films which cater to my interests. (10 Cloverfield Lane is excellent, by the way.)
People has an interview with the family whom the film is based on. As you’ve heard the daughter, Annabel, was cured of an intestinal disorder after a fall from a tree and a near death experience, during which she claims to have gone to heaven. In a video interview on People’s site, Annabel explains that “it was very bright and it was very peaceful and there was no pain in Heaven and that’s why I wanted to stay.” She also says that she saw her “grandparents’ mom who just died recently and that’s how I knew I was in Heaven.” The mom, daughter and family seemed sincere and I can buy that their daughter was healed by whatever means. I’m not a spiritual person but I do believe that they believe.
The family also talked about how nice it was to meet Jennifer Garner and how much she worked on the role. Christy Beam, whom Jennifer portrays, said that Garner “nailed it” especially the fear and frustration she felt in being a mother to a sick child.
So Miracles from Heaven made up its budget opening weekend. Batman vs. Superman is projected to be the most expensive film made to date with a budget topping $410 million. It will probably take a bit longer to make its budget, is what I’m saying, and there’s much more riding on it. No wonder Garner is laughing and joking in interviews and Ben is coming across as worried and neurotic.
photos credit: Getty, FameFlynet and WENN.com
It sounds like a made for TV movie, so I’m a little surprised that people would go the the theatre to see it. But I only see movies on the big screen if I think you need to for the special effects or something. How could falling out of a tree cure an intestinal disorder? That would happen on a soap opera.
It does seem to have happened though. My only guess (and her father’s who is a veterinarian) is that somehow her nervous system got rewired by hitting her head. But definitely a miracle nonetheless.
That’s not a miracle, that’s a physiological response to trauma. It’s a positive thing, certainly, but there is a scientific explanation and therefore it isn’t miraculous in nature, as by definition a miracle is an incident that defies any rational explanation.
Research is showing that the gut and nervous system/brain are linked, much more strongly than we ever suspected before. Maybe her problem was caused by some malfunctioning neural pathway and hitting her head disrupted it enough that it changed. There’s a lot we still don’t know about the body.
It’ll end up being something about her central nervous system being out of whack. The disorder she had prevented her brain’s signals to her intestines from connecting with the muscles in her stomach, so she couldn’t digest food. Though the result was gastrointestinal problems, the actual illness was in her brain. hitting her head probably realigned something and those impulses started going through.
No it was Jesus!
Your stomach is your second brain. The digestive track and your brain are connected. There is loads of research on this. It’s the reason we get “upset stomachs” when we are nervous, etc.
……and maybe it happened just the way the child said, she said she sat on Jesus lap, he told her she had to go back and that she was healed, it wasn’t until quite a while after she had told the story to her parents that they discovered she had been cured of her pre-existing condition.
Don’t many churches bus in their congregations to view these films when they open? I imagine that certainly helps the box office. Plus all the money they saved on the script.
Yes they do, and they’re offered discounted tickets as well. They actually had a number to call if you were looking for group tickets in the commercials that aired where I am.
And what is wrong with bussing groups to an outing? Is your problem because it involves churches?
I didn’t say anything was wrong with it, I merely said that it happens.
I don’t think all of Christianity is a built in audience for this movie. It probably plays well to the evangelical soccer mom contingent. TD Jakes produces Christian themed films and the Left behind films seem more male friendly. Both Jennifer and the mom look good here.
And Eugenio Derbez, the actor who played the outgoing gastroenterologist pediatrician, has a big following on twitter and in the Latino community and brought in audience-goers. He really promoted it in different ways through social media, even making short videos answering fans’ questions, etc., and Univision also held specials for the film.
My family went to watch it because of Eugenio Derbez, he really is quite talented & versatile actor. I grew up watching his shows when I was living in Mexico, so now that he’s making a cross over to film a lot of the Latino community likes to support him.
I really like Eugenio and want to support him, but I hate these Christian-themed movies (they’re so heavy-handed), so Eugenio will have to wait for my support when it comes on cable. 🙂
Oh, I love him, too! He was just fantastic in “Instructions not included” in spite of a very trivial beginning that had me worried.
It actually made 18.5 million total because it opened on Wednesday. The 15 million number was for the box office weekend. They expect this week leading up to Easter to do strong second-week numbers also.
I’m not surprised it did well. People tend to eat this kind of pie-in-the-sky story up. Shmaltsy is the perfect word for it.
Don’t like it don’t watch it. I do not care for schmatz either but respect that there are others who enjoy this and I will not insult their taste
I was actually surprised, because I saw reviews from jaded places like Pajiba, and the reviews all seemed to say that Garner actually grounded it. That the schmaltz wasn’t as bad as they thought it would have been, because she was believable. I still wouldn’t buy a ticket, but maybe I’d watch it on the couch when I was sick.
I seriously doubt hat anyone other than the militant Christian factions had any interest in seeing this movie. From what I read, it looks totally biased and corny.
You are entitled to that prejudiced opinion
This, Dio. Celebitchy, we need a “like” button or a thumbs up/down option! Pleeeeease…
This current wave of religious films have all done well. Not my thing, but clearly there’s an audience.
Jennifer really looks good. She’s stepping up her game!
@bishg I bet Donald trump supporters saw it.
Please don’t peg all Christians as Trump supporters. I am a Christian and proud of it. I am not a Trump supporter and proud of that fact as well.
Ditto.
Sorry I was just kidding I didn’t mean to offend. It was a joke
I don’t think all Christians are trump supporters.
Amen! (The Christian way of saying “me too”)
All joking aside, many Christians I know (myself included) are just shocked that so many “evangelical” Christians are Trump supporters. It doesn’t work with what we believe. So it seems like we’re a little on the defensive when it comes to people lumping us in the category.
No problem, Oli. I was mainly just saying I’m not a Trump supporter.
@mimi THANK YOU! So much hate and nastiness on this today
I’m a Trump supporter and I am not Christian.
Just curious- did the Joseph Finnes movie open yet? I think that one is called Risen. If not and it opens this weekend, will be interesting to see if that movie cuts into this one’s BO take.
Clearly the daughter just had a vision. Her subconscious mind made this “heaven”. Very coincidental though that the fall cured her. That’s nice. I’m happy for the family but I am an atheist and do not understand how you can believe in heaven when science has proven time and time again that it doesn’t exist.
I’m a Christian, but I don’t believe that heaven is a physical space. It’s not something science can prove or disprove. You are entitled to your beliefs, or lack thereof, but you’re not entitled to make false statements and claim they are science.
Well said, GNAT
Margo- “science has proven time and time again that it doesn’t exist.” Can you link to some proof or scientific papers on the subject? I’ve never heard of one study that proves that. I never understand why people can’t let others have their own beliefs .
Well said GNAT and islandwalker.
+1 Gnat.
I’m sorry but I actually lol’d when I read the op. Heaven is real for believers, true, but either way it is faith based. Faith is beautiful because it is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”
I always laugh when atheists go on and on about science and how it backs them up. Well, I worked at MIT and PLENTY of the greatest scientific minds there believed in God. I knew because I would sometimes attend services at their non-denominational chapel. Science does not prove whether God does OR doesn’t exist – it’s a (very) personal perspective. No one can prove one way or the other whether God exists or not. That’s why it’s called a belief. We all need to just respect one another and each others’ beliefs (or nonbeliefs, as the case may be).
@gnat you go!😁
Sorry @Boston Green Eyes, don’t believe you for a second. Not because scientists cannot believe in God, I, too, know scientists who do. But because of your comment about the non-denominational chapel. Hardly anyone goes there. It’s for school-related events only, pretty much: memorial services of students or professors, vigils, etc. (and being there is not an indication of your faith: I went to a memorial service of a dear friend there, but it says absolutely nothing about my faith).
Most people go to their own church, near home, not to a non-denominational chapel on campus!
Science is simply an investigative method. It postulates theories. It solves some problems. It cannot explain everything.
Absolutely!
+ 1 BREAKFAST MARGARITAS that science can’t prove everything, but I do think it is weird when people try to deny sciences existence and that it has proved a lot of things especially stuff religion hasn’t. Although that does not mean there isn’t any good in religion.
By the way not claiming what above was stated was science. I am not against anyone’s believes
Can someone explain that, why some people don’t believe in science which has some facts but religion which can sometimes be fact less. Never understood that
@Oli, I think you’re talking about things like evolution? I don’t understand how people can deny things like that, either, but I don’t take the Bible literally. However, if you think about it, you probably have some things in your life that you just “know” or take on faith without scientific proof? Unfortunately, I can’t really think of an example. Lol, but maybe you have felt love from a distance or just had an instinct that someone was lying? Anyway, I get what you’re saying, I was just trying to explain how I “know” that God exists. Good thing it’s not up to me to inspire others towards my religion, eh?
@GNAT,
so you really feel like you “know”? Not just “hope”?
Cause I really HOPE that God exists, but really, most days, especially ones like today (Brussels), I really don’t feel like there’s any way to “know” it.
Science doesn’t claim to explain everything, religions do that quite a lot even though they are stories written by humans who believed the earth was flat and 6000 years old.
Science has ‘proved’ no such thing. In fact, there a lot of interesting work being done by physicists that point to the possibility of parallel universes.
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/103346/20151105/scientist-may-have-found-proof-of-alternate-parallel-universe.htm
I think that Heaven exists right alongside our ‘reality’. God is not ‘out there’ somewhere, but rather right next to us.
At the end of the day, it wouldn’t be called faith if it was based on something provable, would it? We do have eyewitness accounts to Jesus resurrection and ascension to heaven. First person accounts of it. Even if we didn’t, I would still believe.
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29
This really makes me wish Celebitchy had a “like” option in the comments section. Well said, Crumpet!
Absolutely, Crumpet!
That was beautiful, Crumpet.
Those accounts were written years and years after Jesus’ death. I don’t think Matthew Luke , Mark or John knew Jesus personally.
@crumpet, you have stated simply what I keep messing up, thank you!
Repeat post, sorry.
Except you can’t prove a negative. You can’t prove something doesn’t exist. You can’t prove the Invisible Pink Unicorn doesn’t exist either.
I’m agnostic, so I freely admit that I don’t know what’s out there, but it is a scientific fallacy to say we’ve proved something doesn’t exist. This is why things are called hypothesis and theories. We can theorize that heaven doesn’t exist, and there is evidence to support that theory, but we have not and cannot definitively prove anything. In fact, that kind of closed door mentality is contrary to the scientific method.
“Except you can’t prove a negative. You can’t prove something doesn’t exist. You can’t prove the Invisible Pink Unicorn doesn’t exist either.”
This.
Well put Wren. I’m atheist and I believe that experiences of heaven have a biological basis but I would not say that science has disproven heaven because this is simply not true. “Who” put it well below too.
@Wren and @Celebitchy, you took the words right out of my mouth!
Yes you can! From my child’s science book: could there be a planet just like Earth’s that’s always hidden on the far side of the sun?
We can tell because of gravity,the force means that everything in space pulls on everything else. Sciencest can notice that the pull is weak.. Another planet like earth would pull on Mercury and Venus. No one has never noticed any such effect.
Yes, science and math can prove things exist or not!
Yikes, science doesn’t “prove” anything, it only finds evidence consistent with scientific theory (and in science, “theory” doesn’t mean wishful thinking). The existence of a heaven is not something that has, to this point, been a subject that can be tested using the methods of science. It’s not testable, and falls into the realm of a cultural or religious belief.
Neurological trauma can indeed prompt hallucinatory states, often consistent with the person’s pre-existing beliefs. A little girl raised in a religious household could easily experience her altered consciousness in this framework.
Or not. It’s open to interpretation, but it would be consistent with the evidence compiled so far by neuroscientists.
As for curing a digestive disorder, what IS that digestive disorder? Does anybody know?
Because I have one and I wouldn’t mind climbing a tree once it’s nice out myself.
My only beef with these stories is that people turning to miracles might be less likely to support a government that puts money into medical research; science becomes less of a priority and more wish for ‘miracles,’ as in the Middle Ages. And, more parents don’t use the powerful benefits of medical science to help their children, as we’ve also seen in some difficult cases, sometimes with children dying due to denied medical care.
To me, the occasional miracle story is fun and inspiring, but when they take over the culture, we get anti-science budgets and the NIH is most unhappy about its unfulfilled mandate.
Why would people who believe in the possibility of miracles be less likely to support scientific research. It seems you believe that there is some mutual exclusivity going on. There are many people who believe that science is a logical, plausible way to investigate the world and that the world is also full of the unknowable and the beautiful and the miraculous. One of my church deacons is also a local high school science teacher and a science professor I had in college is a staunch evolutionist and a devout Christian.
@Dame
While, you have your anecdotes of scientifically-minded Christians, I have my anecdotes of religious people who’ve refused to support any personal or global measures aiding environmental sustainability because “God will take care of it.” Just saying.
@Dame, me too – with one exception, all of my friends who work in science fields are people of faith.
Approx. 3/4 of the US population believes in God in one form or another, so of course there’s going to be some variation in the beliefs and relationships to science.
Well said Who. I also would like to fall out of a few trees to correct a number of ailments. Not even any sarcasm there.
Generalizing can lead to inaccuracy. I’m just saying.
Ugh. General tip for atheists:
When you want to comment about this kind of thing, just be respectful and avoid declarative statements along the lines of ‘it wasn’t a vision, she was hallucinating or dreaming’. When you make declarative statements like that you come across as being just as being just as self-righteous as any person who makes declarative statements about their faith.
YOU are an atheist, but so what if people have faith that it was a vision from God rather than a dream? Faith is belief in the absence of proof, so they don’t need science to prove something for them to believe it comes from God.
I’m an atheist myself, and it’s annoying to be associated with people who have no issues telling people with faith that they’re wrong. Please, just be respectful and preface your words with ‘I believe’ or something similar.
If you read the reviews on Rotten by top
critics, the movie gets very poor reviews by most of them, with Jennifer noted as the one bright acting spot in a generally bad movie. It’s definitely not critically acclaimed but will do well given the masses who want to see this type of feel-good Lifetime movie schmaltz. Also lots of talk about the strange and wasted “token black” role given to Queen Latifah as a Boston waitress.
True, it got average to poor reviews, only 53 percent Rotten Tomatoes, but the audience-goers gave it a big 85 percent approval rating on RT. So that should help the movie, positive word of mouth from the people going.
It was also reported that audiences were giving it an A so that should help the box office too.
It’s Holy Week so it’s not surprising. Also, Jen Garner is a star. Shailene Woodley is a good actress but she isn’t really a star. last time she had a super hit as lead was TFIOS, a movie similar to Jen’s. Divergent series are making money but below expectations. Not wise to split the last book into two.
Garner really isn’t a big star, we only talk about her because she was part of a ‘star couple’. Ghost of Girlfriends past is the last film she had a lead role in, a film so crappy it spurred McConaughey on to make a complete career 180. Before that it was Elecktra, which was just an atrocity. She’s carved out a little niche for herself playing uptight supporting characters, but she’d just be known as the actress from Alias if she hadn’t of gotten with Affleck. As evidenced by the fact she’s doing religious movies, which is one tiny half step away from doing a Lifetime movie.
Woodley has a much more solid career, even with the terrible Divergent movies on her resume.
Garner was actually on a very upward trend when she started having kids. She took time away and assumed a very low-key career to have and raise her babies. I would estimate that four of the last ten years she has been pregnant, nursing and caring for toddlers. Now that her youngest is 4, she is stepping back into her career on a much larger basis. She chose the mommy track and has talked about that in several interviews.
I have worked in large law firms for over 25 years. I have seen so many women attorneys get bashed for wanting to spend time with their very young children. Most of the men (who have wives at home taking care of their families) get to devote so many more hours and have little tolerance for women who need to split their time and make it very difficult for those women to get ahead later, when their children are older and they can focus more on their careers.
That’s been a double-standard since forever and I am sad to hear it inferred here by other women, who should support a woman who chose that path, instead of celebrating and cheering on her return to the career she put in the back seat for a while. And she DID put it aside in favor of time with her babies.
I cheer her on, and any other woman who made that choice and I’ll stand with them ALL to empower others to feel free to make it.
Her career wasn’t on an upward swing before she had children, in fact it had been bomb after bomb and she had already had to transition away from lead roles. She’s worked consistently since having children, often working more than Affleck, it’s just that she’s rarely in anything good. 2008 was the only year she didn’t have at least one film out, other years she’s had two or three. That’s more than some much bigger names.
She didn’t sideline her career to have children. She works more than many A-list actresses without children. She’s just not a very good actress not a box office draw, so her options naturally narrowed after she was given a few chances and blew them!
If she’d stuck with action she might have carved out a more successful niche for herself, but she chose to try and become the new Julia, the new Reese instead, and had already failed before hooking up with Ben.
These types of films often do well, so it is not that surprising.
I am with you Div. No matter who was casted, the film will make bank.
I’m a Christian and I would like to see it. And I’m not a Trump supporter. 😎
I think a lot of people are looking for something uplifting, especially in these times. I always appreciate a movie that is character driven instead of relying on special effects.
You probably can see this sort of movies every afternoon on tv ( in France,we can )
This is a harmless film that many devout and mainstream Christians as well as non-religious families would be open to seeing around the Easter holiday. The movie has already made up its budget and will make more in the coming weeks ahead. I project that it will do very well when it comes out on DVD. On the other hand, there is a good chance that Ben’s movie will bomb big time and may not make much beyond its $410 million budget. Jennifer is definitely winning compared to Ben. She looks great, is having fun promoting her film, is handling the press in concerns with her personal life like a pro, and has now won the box office.
Meh, she’s not winning compared to Ben. He’s Warner Brothers’ darling over there with lots of things in the pipeline.
This movie is setting up all the movies to come after, like Wonder Woman, Justice League, etc. It’s a big deal as far as the studio’s long-range plans regarding the DC universe, and this is the only one that will be that expensive. I don’t believe anyone is predicting as low as you are, but it will be interesting to see what it ultimately makes. I expect the first weekend to be huge, but after that it will be interesting to see how it turns out box-officewise domestically and globally, but it will never “bomb big time” as you’re saying..
But good for Jen. I’m happy for her and the movie doing well, even though it’s not my cup of tea.
“there is a good chance that Ben’s movie will bomb big time and may not make much beyond its $410 million budget.”
There is no chance of that. It may not make as much as rabid fanboys want it to (they want it to beat The Avengers, which it probably won’t), but Batman vs Superman *will* make a lot of money. Those characters are too popular, people will go see it just on name recognition alone.
BvS won’t bomb. Keep dreaming. And anyway, he’s Batman, while she’s doing two-bit family/Christian movies. You’d have to be delusional to think that she’s “winning” compared to him.
I think it depends on what is your definition of winning. She is coming out pretty strong from having been dormant for a number of years, and is doing it very well. That stands as winning in my book. I don’t compare her to Affleck because they are on different tracks, but looking at her individually, she is a winner.
Nope it won’t bomb because of the international box office.
I am a believer but I hate Trump. What surprising about this movie of J G is that a lot of teenagers went to see it. From where I live the demographic is mostly white and Asian coming from high income family and it is an area not too far from LA, where a lot of parents are from the entertainment industry. Both were heavily present watching this movie along with the usual family with kids. To me this is very interesting and that guy from Sony in charge of marketing did their work right. This is same for the marketing people of Deadpool. I know different genre but I was more insterested in marketing strategies and both were discussed in LinkedIn.
I am surprised.
She has been working on 2 movies a year average no? don’t use that family thing for what is going with her carrier. her movies have not been making money right? so PR writes it off for kids rasing family now. She may get a turn around because of a new found status etc. . I mean the perfect image carrade seems slips through her hand, at least if she see a turn around in her carrier is good thing . BTW I like miracle type movies I will try to watch it sometime. I’m not even a fan.
As of BA he was doing better movies that explain his good place carrierwise. I hope this won’t bomb . They say it tracking well no? why no reviews yet though?
Ben said years ago she turned down some good opportunities for the family. I’m sure it was in the earlier part of their marriage.
She mostly has only done small parts in movies, never takes the lead until this one and brought the children with her. No three months away from family. She has said before that Ben even had to convince her to take a few roles she so hated to leave her children. So probably a three-week shoot most of the time on smaller projects is what she’s done over the years. Once Ben was on for Batman, plus now having three children, she took a total hiatus for at least a year and a half, and going back to work the spring of last year. This movie was during the summer, so even though it was a longer shoot, it didn’t take her away from her kids. She brought them with her.
She really does center everything around her children workwise, or has up until recently, because she is and wants to be home with the kids,, the one who picks them up from school, takes them to school, except when Ben had time off and she had the small roles. The movie she did the beginning of this year looked like an indie movie to me, no big names, so would be a shorter shoot, and she got to stay in town.
SvB’s reviews are coming out beginning at 6 p.m. today.
I know some of us here love to bash her every time she comes up here but what Jayna wrote here was spot on. Last Spring, was when she filmed 9 Lives and the nanny was supposedly taking care of her kids along with Ben. Then last summer, she went to Atlanta to film MFH. Came back to LA to do school runs. She is filming two movies now which are LA based. She has been like a single parent for most of their marriage so she takes the role of the main parent and work around their schedules as Ben is not reliable.
Jayna, i know you are a bigger supporter of Ben but I like that you always write objectively about JG.
I don’t think anyone’s saying that Jen’s children are not her priority, but some people are always making it sound like she gave up her career to be a wife/sahm when in fact, she worked very consistently during her marriage, sometimes doing 2-3 films a year. Sure they were mostly supporting roles, but she did do some lead roles early on in her marriage, like that rom com “a Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” and another film Catch and Release. Unfortunately for her, those films underperformed. If they had been big hits, do you really think she wouldn’t have capatalized on it and done more lead roles? And let’s be honest: while Jen may have made some sacrifices for her family, she also greatly benefitted from all the PR that came along with being Hollywood Supermom/ Mrs. Ben Affleck. I’ve seen plenty of women admit that they weren’t huge fans of her acting pre-Ben, but really relate to her as a wife and mother. ( to be fair, Ben also benefited from being married to her). So, I guess I just find it a bit misleading when people make it sound like she sacrificed her career for her marriage, when IMO, it helped her career more than it hurt it.
That said I am happy that her film is doing well. She seems like a decent person, so good for her.
Exactly Goldie. She’s worked consistently during the marriage, and she did take lead roles. The films just didn’t do well, nor did she do well in them. Thus the offers dried up. Her career was already trending downwards before she started a relationship with Affleck. She was already on this career path. There are a lot of actors and actresses who work far less and still make far more of a mark than she ever has. If it was an issue of wanting to be with her kids, there’s no reason she couldn’t have taken better supporting roles in better films, unless she wasn’t being offered any.
If anything the marriage and children helped her massively. It’s kept her relevant when her work absolutely hasn’t. Would gossip sites be talking about her role in a saccharine Christian film if it wasn’t for the divorce. Hell no.
Agree with the above.
It’s not my type of movie but can understand its appeal for a certain demographic.