It has taken Hollywood a long time to seriously gear up to tap into the vast potentially lucrative Christian marketplace. Brooks Barnes recently penned an eye-opening article describing how such efforts have now taken on more energy than ever before. He writes in "Secular Hollywood Quietly Courts the Faithful":
On the surface, Hollywood is a land of loose morals, where materialism rules, sex and drugs are celebrated on screen (and off), and power players can have a distant relationship with the truth. But movie studios and their partners have quietly — very quietly, sometimes to the degree of a black ops endeavor — been building deep connections to Christian filmgoers who dwell elsewhere on the spectrum of politics and social values. In doing so, they have tapped churches, military groups, right-leaning bloggers and, particularly, a fraternity of marketing specialists who cut their teeth on overtly religious movies but now put their influence behind mainstream works like “Frozen,” “The Conjuring,” “Sully” and “Hidden Figures.”
The marketers are writing bullet points for sermons, providing footage for television screens mounted in sanctuaries and proposing Sunday school lesson plans. In some cases, studios are even flying actors, costume designers and producers to megachurch discussion groups.
I found it a fascinating article, filled with marketing details and personalities new to me. As I read I began to wonder, might these developments be a sign that God is beginning to answer many people's prayers for Hollywood to change its direction and offer uplifting and morally challenging films on a more regular basis? One can hope -- and continue to pray. Read the whole thing.