Fox Pursues the Flock

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 21, 2006 — -- Several years of dwindling box-office receipts and sluggish DVD sales have sent one major Hollywood studio mining for movie gold among the faithful.

20th Century Fox has unveiled a new division -- FoxFaith -- created to acquire and distribute "morally-driven, family friendly programming," according to its Web site, which explains, "to be part of FoxFaith, a movie has to have overt Christian content or be derived from the work of a Christian author."

Steve Feldstein, senior vice president of marketing at Fox Home Video, says the studio is not looking to save souls.

"All of this programming is entertainment first. We're not in the business of proselytizing or preaching."

But business salvation is a motivating factor, says media consultant Phil Cooke, whose clients include some of the largest and most successful Christian ministries in the country.

"Seventy million people refer to themselves as evangelical Christians out there," Cooke said.

"Fox is realizing there is a vast market out there that a great deal of their product has not been reaching, and that's the reason they are going to focus on that group."

A poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Life found that 82 percent of Americans identified themselves as Christian, though just a quarter characterized themselves as "evangelical."

FoxFaith plans to release 12 small-budget films a year, costing on average $6 million each to produce.

That's roughly 10 percent of the average price of most projects.

The films will get a $5 million marketing budget for a very focused campaign aimed right at the target audience.

Most of the new label's projects will be films bought from independent production companies, and most of those will go straight to DVD.

FoxFaith will also have a handful of theatrical releases a year.