Ben-Hur Bombs At The Box Office

Deadline reports:

With an estimated production cost that’s in the vicinity of $100M, MGM and Paramount certainly didn’t build Ben-Hur to fail this weekend. But if there’s one Come-to-Jesus from this remake’s estimated disastrous $11M opening: It’s still a challenge for Hollywood to cross over a faith-based film to the masses 12 years after the $370M ($612M global) success of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. Ben-Hur is the third big-budget faith-based movie from a major studio to fall from box office grace in the wake of Noah ($101.2M domestic B.O., $125M production cost) and the mighty Moses misfire Exodus: Gods and Kings ($65M domestic B.O., $140M cost).

While low-budget, independently financed faith-based films like War Room ($67.8M) and Heaven Is for Real ($91.4M) will continue to come down the pipeline given their profit margins, will Hollywood attempt another big-budget faith-based tentpole? Last year, Warner Bros. announced that Apostle Paul was in development with Hugh Jackman in the title role and producing alongside Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. For those who forgot, they’re the stars from that Kevin Smith ’90s movie Dogma which endured the wrath of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and was deemed “blasphemous.” Will the outcome of Ben-Hur give the Burbank,CA-based studio second thoughts?