Focus on the Family’s Plugged In movie reviewers just unveiled their Christian Movie Madness Bracket – where you can join in the fun and pick what you think are the best Christian movies of all time.
Our crack Plugged In team pulled 64 of the top-grossing Christian films of all time, seeding them according to Box Office Mojo’s lifetime adjusted box office earnings. The films are placed in four different brackets and paired off against each other according to their seeding.
Plugged In’s Bret Eckelberry told me the one film that was included that wasn’t on Box Office Mojo’s list was Cru’s The Jesus Film. He explained,
“The exception to this was The Jesus Film from 1979. Though we couldn’t find specific financial information about it, Cru (which distributes the film) estimates that 5 billion people have seen the film across the globe. We felt like that deserved a #1 seed!”
People have strong feelings about movies. I’m sure you have your own favorites, whether it’s The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; The Kendrick Brothers’ Courageous; War Room; Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie; Sound of Freedom; or God’s Not Dead.
But we all know what films deserve to be in the final four. Seriously, I’d hate to influence your vote, but here are my picks:
The Ten Commandments, Cecille B. DeMille’s epic 1956 film, of course. And what a cast! The film starred Charlton Heston as Moses, and it featured film greats like Anne Baxter, Yul Brynner, Yvonne De Carlo, Vincent Price and Edward G. Robinson.
Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, starring Jim Caviezel. (Though Plugged In gives it a “Heavy” content caution, due to the vivid, bloody violence – definitely not for kids.) I sobbed all the way through this at the theater.
Ben-Hur, the classic 1959 film with Charlton Heston won a record 11 Academy Awards. (Not the 2016 remake!) The chariot scene, the epic sea battles, the leprosy – who cares that it runs more than three hours? Go ahead and get more Milk Duds and make more popcorn during the intermission!
Les Misérables – WAIT A MINUTE – THEY DIDN’T INCLUDE LES MISÉRABLES?? With one of the most powerful Christian conversion scenes ever? The scene where the Bishop extends grace to Jean Valjean and his life is redeemed from hatred? Or the part where Fantine is redeemed from sin and goes to heaven? Makes me cry just re-watching the video clips.
Here’s how Eckelberry explained these grievous omissions: “Movies like Lord of the Rings and Les Misérables, while packed with Christian themes, were not officially designated as ‘Christian films’ and so were left off the list.”
Hmph!
I’d forgotten about Lord of the Rings until Eckelberry mentioned it, and that would’ve been my overall top pick, of course, but Tolkien did set the books in a pre-Christian era.
Still, kind of a lame excuse, if you ask me.
And really? Why is The Shack even on the list?
Easy to replace that with LOTR, Les Misérables or even Max Von Sydow in The Greatest Story Ever Told.
Some have even wondered why Lord of the Beans isn’t on the list (well, okay, one person asked about this film’s omission). But of course that Veggie Tale classic never had a theatrical release. Sorry, only on video.
Like I said, people have strong feelings about movies.
Eckleberry explained that multiple films on the list come from the same producers or series:
We’ve got three movies from Chronicles of Narnia, three from God’s Not Dead, two from VeggieTales and two from Omega Code. We’ve even got some original films and their reboots in Ben-Hur and Left Behind! The Kendrick Brothers [films such as Facing the Giants, Overcomer, The Forge, Fireproof and War Room] and the Erwin Brothers [films like October Baby, Moms’ Night Out and I Can Only Imagine] are also well represented in the bracket with several films each.
He added, “Vote for your favorite movies and, if there are films in the bracket that you don’t like, vote against them! The point is to see the scope of Christian movies over time and have fun rooting for your favorite films to move onto the next round.”
Half the fun of the brackets is seeing all the random movie matchups. Case in point: The Case for Christ vs. Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie. Or Fireproof vs. The Omega Code. Lots of fun matchups in the first round, and many more to come in the next rounds!
Voting for the first round is live NOW!
Round of 64: March 15-20, 2025.
Round of 32: March 21-25, 2025.
Big 16: March 26-30, 2025.
Epic Eight: March 31-April 4, 2025.
Famous Four: April 5-9, 2025.
Championship: April 10-14, 2025.
Winner Revealed: April 15, 2025
Eckleberry told us, “People can jump in and vote at any time. You don’t have to have voted in the last round to vote in the next.”
Plugged In will be updating the Christian Movie Madness page regularly as rounds wrap up and winners move on to the next matchup until one movie is left standing – the greatest Christian movie of all time (as voted on by our audience). So remember to vote each round!
So what are your top picks? What Christian-themed movies should be in the Final Four?
Vote now at Plugged In’s Christian Movie Madness.
More Resources:
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