- Culture
- Film
The trend includes a rise in confessional films and TV series depicting specific faiths, predominantly Christianity
Krysta Fauria Wednesday 17 December 2025 22:34 GMT- Bookmark
Bookmark popover
Removed from bookmarks
Close popover
ClosePassion of the Christ sequel will be released in two parts
Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email
Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter
Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter
Email*SIGN UPI would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice
Hollywood appears to have found its faith, with a surge of religious-themed productions featuring prominent actors such as Josh O’Connor, Keanu Reeves and Elizabeth Olsen in upcoming roles.
This trend extends beyond major studio productions and independent features, encompassing a significant rise in confessional films and television series that evangelize or depict specific faiths, predominantly Christianity, which have resonated strongly with viewers.
Examples range from Angel Studios’ animated biblical musical, David, which has already garnered over $14 million in theatrical pre-sale tickets ahead of its release this Friday, to Martin Scorsese’s docudrama The Saints. While episodes from Season 2 are still being released, the latter’s debut season on Fox Nation proved to be the platform’s most-watched series last year.
Traci Blackwell, head of targeted content for Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, affirmed this shift at a recent Variety event, declaring: "There has been a revival, a revolution of sorts, of spirituality and faith content." Amazon itself has invested heavily, premiering its biblical drama House of David and securing exclusive U.S. streaming rights for The Chosen, a hugely popular series depicting the life of Jesus.
“This film was his way of exploring his faith and exploring who his God is,” Scorsese’s daughter Francesca, who directed one of the episodes of The Saints , said of The Last Temptation of Christ . (Fox Nation via AP)The Chosen effect
Historically, some faith-based entertainment has performed well at the box office — Mel Gibson’s 2004 epic The Passion of the Christ was notoriously the highest-grossing R-rated film in the U.S. and Canada for two decades. But faith-based hits have been few and far between for most of this century.
“Hollywood has taken a lot of criticism by those in the faith community for not providing films that speak to them, that reflect their values,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore’s senior media analyst, emphasizing the box-office potential of faith-based films.
Studios are realizing faith-based film and television is a worthwhile investment at least in part due to the success of The Chosen, which Angel helped launch in 2017, even if it initially took time to see those results.
“It was like pulling teeth to get people to watch it,” recalled Angel CEO and co-founder Neal Harmon. “People have this idea that faith means cheesy or preachy. And we had to break through that barrier.”
Once they did, it paid off. Since Fathom Entertainment began distributing The Chosen theatrically in 2023, the series has grossed more than $116 million domestically.
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day
New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.
Try for freeADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day
New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.
Try for freeADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
Though not a Christian company, Angel aims to distribute and market “values-based entertainment” that includes but is not limited to stories of faith. They’ve released a host of religious films, with Zero A.D., a biblical epic about the Massacre of the Innocents recounted in the Gospel of Matthew, on the docket for 2026.
Meanwhile, Lionsgate is set to premiere I Can Only Imagine 2 in theaters February, a sequel to the 2018 biopic starring Dennis Quaid, which was one of the highest-grossing Christian films of all-time in the United States.
Co-director Andrew Erwin said he noticed a “massive shift” take place about five years ago, after years of disconnect between the demand for these kinds of films and Hollywood’s willingness to make them.
“For the first time, movie studios are really giving us a fair shake,” he said, though he thinks the quality of the content was also a factor. “We didn’t have the knowledge of how to do the filmmaking side of things. And so, I think the storytelling has gotten a lot better.”
Lionsgate is also set to distribute the first of Gibson’s two-part sequel to The Passion of the Christ in 2027.
Defining ‘faith-based’
Trying to define what counts as faith-based programming is a bit like trying to define what counts as pornography.
Themes of belief, guilt and “foolish grace” abound in O’Connor’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery — the third of filmmaker Rian Johnson’s hit Netflix franchise. But few would call it a religious film.
Amanda Seyfried preaches celibacy and endures persecution in The Testament of Ann Lee, the musical biopic about the founder of the Shakers sect, in theaters Christmas. But in all the acclaim and Oscar buzz surrounding the film, there’s little talk of its engagement with faith.
Even Scorsese’s 1988 The Last Temptation of Christ or filmmaker Paul Schrader’s Oscar-nominated First Reformed, which also stars Seyfried, are hardly thought of broadly as Christian films, despite the fact that both men have been outspoken about their respective traditions.
“This film was his way of exploring his faith and exploring who his God is,” Scorsese’s daughter Francesca, who directed one of the episodes of The Saints, said of The Last Temptation of Christ.
Conversely, the people behind some of these recent projects resist them being called explicitly religious, even when audiences perceive them as such.
“I wouldn’t characterize it so much as overtly Christian,” Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in “The Chosen, told The Associated Press last year. “It’s a historical drama that centers on Jesus.”
For studios and filmmakers, acknowledging that a project is told from a religious perspective can be a double-edged sword.
“If you’re buying in on going to the movie theater for a faith-based movie, you know you’re gonna have people around you who are really into the experience,” Dergarabedian said. “The minute you say faith-based though, it kind of puts a movie in a box.”
A fad or here to stay
Many Christians celebrate the trend beyond its monetary potential. Phil Wickham, a Grammy-nominated Christian recording artist who voices the character of David in the upcoming Angel film, said it’s been gratifying to see the success of shows like The Chosen and House of David.
“Growing up, anything that was Christian media felt so preachy,” Wickham said. “Even as a pastor’s kid, it was a turn off. But now I think there’s just more opportunity to tell bigger stories over the course of a series and more people willing to really dig in and tell something with excellence and beauty.”
While it’s too soon to tell whether there's been a sea change in Hollywood or if it's a short-term fad, the success of some of these projects has stood out amid an otherwise perilous time in the business.
“Hollywood usually follows money,” Jason Klarman, Fox News Media’s chief digital and marketing officer, said as he touted Fox Nation’s packed slate of upcoming faith-based content, including Zachary Levi's David: King of Israel docudrama. “Even when the trend ends, we’ll still be doing it."
