Christian Movie ‘The Forge’ Climbs to No. 1 in Brazil, Dominican Republic
- Michael Foust Crosswalk Headlines Contributor
- Updated Oct 14, 2024
One of the biggest faith-based hits at the U.S. box office this year is a massive success in Brazil, too. The Forge, the Kendrick Brothers movie that opened at No. 5 in the U.S. and grossed $28.6 million, opened at No. 1 in Brazil for the weekend of Sept. 26-29 and dropped only one spot to No. 2 in its second weekend. It has grossed more than $2 million in the South American country.
The Forge also was No. 1 opening weekend in the Dominican Republic (Oct. 3-6).
The Christian movie was filmed in Albany, Ga., and follows the story of an irresponsible young man who learns about life and faith under the discipleship of a wise mentor.
Film producer Stephen Kendrick said he and his brother, director Alex Kendrick, always pray their films will "impact the nations."
One of their previous movies, Overcomer, also climbed to No. 1 in Brazil.
Kendrick shared how his team received a message years ago from a Christian living in an unnamed Muslim country who was grateful to see a Kendrick Brothers film in theaters. The Christian man wrote: "We don't get Christian movies here. Tonight, I sat in the theater and watched the gospel being proclaimed loud and clear. All of our movies are censored. But somehow, all of the Bible verses, salvation moments, words about Jesus -- all of it made it past the censors. Even the translated subtitles were accurate. And the theater has been so packed. ..No movie like this should have been in our country -- it brought tears to my eyes."
The Kendrick Brothers film Courageous was shown to hundreds of police officers in Panama, Stephen Kendrick said. The movie follows the story of law enforcement officers studying the Bible.
"They said that the integrity demonstrated in that movie can impact the entire nation if the police will follow the example in the film," he said.
Hundreds of police officers in the Philippines, he said, came to Christ from watching Courageous.
"We've received emails from Russia, from Afghanistan," he added.
"We didn't orchestrate any of this," Kendrick said of their movies' impact on the world. "We're on the bus saying, 'Jesus, you drive. Let me just hang on and help me to be obedient.'"
Photo Credit: ©Kendrick Brothers
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
