Bible Film Exodus Seeks Big Money With Altered Story
Bible film Exodus: Gods and Kings seeks to part through its competition and rise to the top of the box office, and while projections indicate that might happen, the altered biblical story might not completely be a financial success.
[Ed. note: there are some spoilers below — beware!]
“‘Exodus‘ Will Rule U.S. Box Office With $25 Million Weekend,” reported trade publication Variety. “Fox’s Biblical epic looks likely to take in about $9 million Friday, including $1.2 million from late Thursday shows. A $25 million launch would be in line with recent forecasts, the most bullish of which went as high as $30 million.”
And while that might be good news for the filmmakers, other reports indicate that the financial success of the film is still up in the air.
Box Office Mojo compared this Bible film to Noah, another Bible film that debuted earlier this year. Based on that comparison, Box Office Mojo conjectured on a potential total haul for Exodus. “Noah opened to an impressive $43.7 million in March, though poor word-of-mouth caused it to fall off quickly on its way to a $101.2 million total. Exodus probably isn’t going to match that opening: with potential moviegoers focused on holiday chores, December debuts are notoriously low. At the same time, though, December releases tend to have a strong multiple, and a $30-million-plus debut typically translates in to over $100 million total.”
The article later added that “it would be a very long road to $100 million” for the Bible movie.
The question of if word-of-mouth will help or hurt remains to be seen. No doubt, however, what people think about the alterations made to the story from the Bible will be an important factor.
Screen Rant listed some of the changes it found in the movie. One of those film changes was making the God of the Bible a child.
“In Gods and Kings, Moses’ sheep escape him, running up the mountain, and he is injured in a mudslide. Trapped in the wet soil, he see [sic] the burning bush as well as God, who appears in the form of a young boy. The boy commissions Moses to free the Hebrews; but later, Moses doubts whether his vision was real — or simply a hallucination caused by his injuries. Moses is the only person capable of seeing the boy, a point that is hammered home by the fact that Joshua (Aaron Paul) later watches in confusion (on several occasions) as Moses talks to thin air.”
Some viewers might not mind — or even notice — such changes. But others certainly will. Rebecca Cusey, writing at the Federalist, found the changes from the Bible to have a negative impact on the movie.
“More importantly, the film changes the tone and ideas of the story. The central conflict is not between Moses and Ramses, but between little-boy-God and Moses. They yell at each other, they snipe, they call each other nasty names and accuse each other of being heartless, uncaring meanies. The only thing they never do is listen to each other. At the end, as Moses chips painstakingly at some stone tablets, little-boy-God wonders that Moses ‘doesn’t agree with’ Him, but sticks around. Moses concedes that he ‘doesn’t agree with’ little-boy-God, but at least they’re still talking.”
The Inquisitr previously reported on how the races of the main cast created some controversy surrounding Exodus. Time will tell if the alterations to the well-known (by many) Bible story will also play a part in how the public reacts to it.
[Image via official movie poster]
