{"id":1447044,"date":"2022-04-20T07:45:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T11:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1447044"},"modified":"2022-04-20T07:45:07","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T11:45:07","slug":"did-christians-fail-father-stu-or-vice-versa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/did-christians-fail-father-stu-or-vice-versa\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Christians Fail \u201cFather Stu\u201d\u2026 or Vice Versa?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdid-christians-fail-father-stu-or-vice-versa%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1447044&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p><strong>Mark Wahlberg\u2019s passion project didn\u2019t light a fire under movie goers.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cFather Stu,\u201d based on a touching true story, generated $6 million over the holiday weekend, bringing its total to $8.5 million to date. The film debuted behind \u201cSonic the Hedgehog 2,\u201d \u201cFantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,\u201d \u201cThe Lost City\u201d and \u201cEverything Everywhere All at Once.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s after both Wahlberg and co-star Mel Gibson made the media rounds to promote the film during a very holy time of the year for Christians.<\/p>\n<p>That group, which rarely gets mainstream movies aimed at them, didn\u2019t show up en masse.\u00a0Did they fail a movie designed to speak to their beliefs? Or are other factors in play?<\/p>\n<p>Jacob Airey, pop culture pundit and founder of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/studiojakemedia.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">StudioJakeMedia.com<\/a><\/strong>, says the fiim\u2019s release timing, which seemed strong on paper, may have worked against it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChristians typically avoid the movies for the holidays,\u201d says Airey, a Christian pop culture observer and author of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/the-seven-royals-jacob-airey\/1130369222?ean=9781644384831\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Seven Royals<\/a>\u201d fantasy series.<\/p>\n<p>Christians often judge \u201cChristian\u201d movies more harshly than other titles, he adds.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodintoto.com\/mark-wahlberg-cancel-culture\/\"><strong>RELATED: Here\u2019s How Mark Wahlberg Outsmarted Cancel Culture<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Film blogger <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/howtowatchamotionpicture.blogspot.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sarah Hargett<\/a><\/strong> says the film\u2019s modest start could convince Sony and other studios to shy away from similar fare.\u00a0The fact that \u201cFather Stu\u201d exists, though, boiled down to Wahlberg\u2019s commitment to the material.<\/p>\n<p>The Oscar nominee <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/mark-wahlberg-says-spent-millions-084636883.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">poured some of his own cash<\/a> into the project.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe had a passion for a story that maybe wasn\u2019t mainstream marketable in the first place, but he wanted to tell it, so he did,\u201d Hargett says, adding that can be the difference between a greenlit story and once that remains in limbo. \u201cIn that sense, no, I think that filmmakers who find a story they love and want to tell won\u2019t be dissuaded by the idea that it may not be a box office hit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Conservatives and Christians bemoan the lack of content aimed at their respective communities. On that level, \u201cFather Stu\u201d feels like a missed opportunity, at least looking at the bottom line.<\/p>\n<p>Hargett isn\u2019t convinced.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithin my personal community of fellow believers and fellow conservatives, there isn\u2019t an interest in movies that cater to our beliefs. What I see is people who just want to see good movies\u2014artful movies\u2014that aren\u2019t tainted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Virtue-Bombs-Hollywood-Woke-Lost\/dp\/B09P8WNJQT\/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=virtue+bombs&#038;qid=1650414463&#038;s=books&#038;sprefix=virtue+bombs%2Cstripbooks%2C107&#038;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hollywood\u2019s woke agenda,<\/a>\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019d rather see movies with no agenda at all. And I\u2019d love to see them come from Christian filmmakers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFather Stu,\u201d she adds, missed what audiences crave in the modern marketplace.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CcTqctOhDXH\/?utm_source=ig_embed&#038;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\">\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Freelance reporter Josh M. Shepherd, who covers faith and family entertainment for The Federalist, didn\u2019t see those box office numbers as weak given current trends. The film\u2019s R-rating, though, clearly kept some Christians at home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve spoken to numerous people in the Bible Belt who didn\u2019t recommend \u2018Father Stu\u2019 because of the amount of coarse language in it,\u201d Shepherd says. The film embraced that rating to capture Stuart Long\u2019s transformation from ne\u2019er do well to a man of the cloth.<\/p>\n<p>Airey agrees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChristians tend to watch rated R films in private. They do not want to so publicly support a movie that has course foul language, etc., even if the story is one that has their values in theory,\u201d Airey says.<\/p>\n<p>Shepherd notes that \u201cFather Stu\u201d debuted with two strikes against it \u2013 the mature rating and Gibson\u2019s personal baggage. The \u201cRoad Warrior\u201d star\u2019s personal meltdowns related to those anti-Semitic rants dating back to 2006.<\/p>\n<p>Some audiences will never forgive Gibson for those moments, even though Hollywood slowly accepted him back into their community.<\/p>\n<p>The future may be brighter for the film once it leaves theaters for good, Shepherd predicts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2019Father Stu\u2019 will do really well when it lands on Netflix later this year, no doubt,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mark Wahlberg\u2019s passion project didn\u2019t light a fire under movie goers. \u201cFather Stu,\u201d based on a touching true story, generated $6 million over the holiday weekend, bringing its total to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":489,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1447044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1447044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1447044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1447044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1447044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}