It’s Just Business at Lionsgate
In Matthew 6:3-4, Jesus talked about giving and said, “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.” Apparently Lionsgate Entertainment has borrowed that saying and applied it to their distribution practices.
They released The Case for Faith DVD with author Lee Strobel on September 2nd. The video is an investigation into the eight most common heart and intellectual barriers to belief in Jesus Christ.
Today Lionsgate is releasing into theaters nationwide the film “Religulous,” with Bill Maher. It is Maher’s investigation of what he believes are the fallacies of organized religion, an unrestrained mockumentary that makes religions and the people who practice them the butt of his jokes.
This proves that to Lionsgate, and I daresay most major studios, films are a business and they are interested in making a profit, not a philosophical statement.
Interesting point. But I think in the case with Lionsgate, it seems to be that they are already aware of their specialty studio status from the onset so that is why they do not have a faith division, per se, but rather it is their business model to distribute movies that have niche audiences with low-mid range budgets and it has worked for them. That said every business has an underlying ideological premise for what they do. If a human being is running it, there will be a governing core belief system however well they dress it up. Which one of those two documentary movies got more mainstream publicity – “Religulous” or “The Case For Faith”? The owners of Lionsgate could also have a mindset that they are doing some good by distributing faith based material so it will make the movies that promote bad things alright as well. But that is what I think maybe the case?
October 6th, 2008 at 3:56 am