Latest news with #KingofKings
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Kennedy Center promotes first explicitly pro-Christian feature in years as part of new ‘family-friendly' focus
The Kennedy Center is seeking to revamp its family-focused programming, including through offering more explicitly faith-based content that has often been left off the center's agenda. To kick off the new focus, the Kennedy Center will be holding a free family screening of the new Angel Studios animated movie "The King of Kings," which journeys through the life of Jesus from the viewpoint of a young boy who, throughout the movie, discovers the transformative power of faith. It is the first Jesus-centric show there since 2022. The "King of Kings" screening, which will be held on Sunday, June 1, marks a shift to providing more pro-Christian content at the Kennedy Center. According to the center, the only recent modern production that could be considered "Christian" was a 2022 showing of "Jesus Christ Superstar," a musical from the early 1970s that some critics (at least initially, such as the late Rev. Billy Graham) considered sacrilegious. David Marcus: As Springsteen And De Niro Trash America Abroad, Kennedy Center Thrives "When I saw the advertising campaign for 'King of Kings,' I immediately knew we needed to have it come to the Kennedy Center," Ambassador Richard Grenell, President of The Kennedy Center, said. "And then coincidentally, I was asked to be on a panel with the CEO of Angel Studios, so I cornered him. This is family-friendly programming that we will be doing more of in the future." Read On The Fox News App The special screening of "King of Kings" will mark the center's first Jesus-centric show since "Jesus Christ Superstar," the Kennedy Center indicated. The venue has hosted gospel singers and classical performances by composers such as Mozart and Beethoven, some of which were originally commissioned for church music. Scoop: Dolly Parton Symphony Concert Heads To Dc's Kennedy Center In Event 'No One Will Want To Miss' "The King of Kings has become the most successful theatrically released faith-based animated film in history," said David Fischer, Head of Acquisitions & Business Affairs at Angel Studios. "But its greatest achievement is in the hearts it's moved—and its screening at the Kennedy Center is a symbol of just how far truth and light can travel." The film, which came out last month, saw a strong box office performance, earning $19.3 million during its first weekend in theaters. It is produced by Angel Studios, which is a crowd-funded streaming service and film studio that produces a lot of pro-Christian content and aims to help boost independent article source: Kennedy Center promotes first explicitly pro-Christian feature in years as part of new 'family-friendly' focus
Miami Herald
15-05-2025
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
Don Omar: 25 years of musical legacy and a new business on the horizon
Two decades after the release of 'King of Kings,' one of the most iconic albums in reggaeton history, Don Omar continues to make waves—not just in music, but now in the business world. In an exclusive interview with El Nuevo Herald, the Puerto Rican artist reflected on his career, the lasting impact of his music, and his new venture as an entrepreneur. 'Having a 25-year career is a blessing—it's not something that happens to everyone,' he says with pride. 'Seeing that the parents, children, and even the grandchildren of my peers sing and dance to my music is something very special.' From the stage to the people's hearts From his early days in Puerto Rico to becoming a living legend of urban music, Don Omar has built a path filled with hits, awards, and broken records. Today, 20 years after his historic collaboration with Aventura on 'Ella y Yo,' his music still resonates across generations. His legacy isn't just about numbers or records sold—it's about the emotional connection he's built with millions of fans. 'Satisfaction is the word,' he says when asked how it feels to remain relevant in 2025. The entrepreneur behind the artist Don Omar's energy and passion have led him into a new chapter: a car care products company. While this move might seem unexpected, it's deeply tied to one of his passions—motorsports. 'For the past five years, I've been a huge motorsports fan. I'm a race car driver. I own race cars and now I have a company that doesn't feel like work—it's something I genuinely enjoy,' he says. This new venture, already with Advance Auto Parts, has plans to distribute in 4,000 stores across the U.S., and Don Omar has kicked off a promotional campaign in Central Florida. 'If you want more info, just check my social media—everything's there,' he adds enthusiastically. A message to his younger self To close the interview, we asked what he would say to his younger self—just before his career took off. 'I'd say, 'Be careful before you begin.' I came out of the church—I was a youth pastor. If I had met myself in that transition, I'd say, 'Don't forget that the Bible says: Above all else, guard your heart.'' In an industry often defined by fleeting fame, Don Omar stands as proof that true success is not only measured by applause—but by purpose.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bill Mechanic On Trump & Hollywood Tariff Quick-Fix
Editor's note: When President Donald Trump proposed to 'fix' runaway Hollywood production by imposing 100% tariffs on films shot abroad, Pandemonium Films CEO Bill Mechanic answered Deadline's call quickly to break down whether such a kneejerk solution could remedy a problem long in the making. A former producer of the Oscars and top executive at Paramount, Disney and Fox, Mechanic spelled out why the tariff solution was folly. Deadline got a ton of reaction and so did Mechanic, who agreed the complex problem deserved a second deep dive. Here it is, and we're grateful to have it. Given the number of articles and opinions offered these past few days, it's clear that many people believe Donald Trump's tweet about instituting punitive tariffs on movies to help production in the U.S. There are discussions about what is actually subject to the tariff – the whole film or parts of it. How the tariffs might work in conjunction with federal production incentives. Arguments about whether the idea is good or bad. Whether any of it's real or just his usual bluster and hocus and pocus, without, that is, any real magic. More from Deadline Trump's Kneejerk Hollywood Fix Is No Tariff-ic Idea: Bill Mechanic Examines The Pitfalls & Tells How The Town Really Feels – Guest Column Read Jon Voight's Plan To Save Hollywood: Midsize Federal Tax Credits, Increased Write-Offs & Harsh Tariffs On Overseas Incentives Bruce Springsteen Says Trump Is Running "A Corrupt, Incompetent And Treasonous Administration" Like Apate, the Greek Goddess of deception, truth has no role in the Trump universe. Fundamentally, it's difficult to believe Trump would lift any finger other than his middle one toward Hollywood. Jon Voight's claim that Trump loves movies (well maybe not Sebastian Stan in The Apprentice), is absurd. Undoubtedly, he has a large base of fans here, but as far as votes go, he barely bothered to campaign in California. This just isn't where his bread is buttered. But I understand why people want to believe the offer of help is real, since the state of motion picture production is in critical condition. Production has been hacked at and chopped down by a variety of factors: the impact of the pandemic; the effect of the streamers cannibalizing theatrical exhibition even though theatrical releases make for more successful play off on the streamers; the self-immolation of actions by studios (best example: WB one year released their entire film slate day-and-date with streaming). And while the SAG and WGA strikes dealt with absolutely critical issues, they made the financing landscape even more tenuous. Put it all together and what do you have? An industry that makes fewer and fewer movies. The motion picture world of today reminds me of Rio – opulent penthouses (big IP) on one side of the street, and hovels (independent movies) on the other. No middle class in between. Of the Top 10 movies so far this year, the only two, Dog Man and King of Kings, both PG-rated animated films, were produced for less than $100 million (in fact, both less than $50 million). Independent movies have almost all been bullied out of the way. As a result, work opportunities have dried up, not just here but everywhere. Certainly some of the U.S. situation is due to overseas production, but that's a secondary factor. Soundstages are empty everywhere. The fact is jobs are scarce because movies are scarce. Many of the most constant sources of film financing have restricted what they fund. So what do tariffs do to address the problem of less films, more jobs, etc.? As close to nothing as you can get – unless you can't count. Tariffs fundamentally do one thing – make imported goods more costly. Usually instituted because of a severe imbalance in trade. Movies are very different in that regard – movies are one of America's most consistent winners in trade surplus. More than two-thirds of the revenue on major films come from overseas. Do not miss this point: A tariff may stop something from being made but it in no way at all guarantees it will get made in the U.S. With all the noise Trump has created from his preceding tariff announcements, the only responses have been an outlined agreement with the UK — one which the U.S. automakers feel is completely unfair to them. A just-announced ceasefire with China at crippling tariff levels has been without China conceding anything! Trump's nonsensical tariff policy is destroying everything and helping no one. The result is American trade surplus is at a historic low. Wall Street ping pongs the effects based on rumors and projections. Costs are beginning to skyrocket as the costs are passed on. Do you think for one moment the UK, Europe, Australia, India, Japan and China won't hatch plans to make it uneconomic to distribute American made films in their countries? Any tariff plan will destroy one of our greatest products in the balance of trade. If that happens, the crumbling economics of film production will be worse than at any point in time. Weakened theatrical, almost no TV or ancillary sales, and no international to speak of. If Trump wanted to create chaos, he has succeeded. The point being, even if there is some kind of movie tariff, do not expect the soundstages to be filled. The number of movies being made will further collapse. Independent production will move to the soundstages on Boot Hill. Tariffs don't help anyone in our industry. What would be a solution to losing movie production? Better owners of studios. More movies from streamers flowing through theatrical. Better movies. Or the thing that makes the most sense, competitive production incentives. Tariffs do not make Los Angeles, Atlanta or anywhere else here competitive. They raise prices. That's it. If Trump creates a federal production incentive program, it might, when added to state subsidies, change the landscape. But don't you think he would have done something for the industries he's crippled already? I don't know how true it is, but the commercials I've seen in the past few weeks claim that Ford has the most U.S.-based car manufacturing system, yet I just read that Ford thinks the car tariffs will cost them over $1.5 billion in profit!!! How are the farmers being helped? The merchants? Where do you think movies fall in our megalomaniac's world? That was the main point I was trying to make. Everyone wants a panacea for the problems ailing our industry. Wish fulfillment is clouding judgment. Trump has no plan to help movies. He hates Hollywood. We're a revenge target, not an industry that will help him. Look at what he's done to the Kennedy Center, to the law firms who opposed him, what he's tried to do to New York, how he said he would not provide federal aid when Los Angeles suffered the worst fires in our history, how he pulled out of climate control and attacks California's clean air initiatives. All the negativity aside, change happens only when we will it to happen. Our soundstages are empty, production levels are not only low and narrow in focus. Tariffs will only make matters worse. Incentives are the best chance we have to turn things around, so that's the effort we should all get behind. With enough support, perhaps the unlikely will come to pass and Washington will act. Best of Deadline Where To Watch All The 'Mission: Impossible' Movies: Streamers With Multiple Films In The Franchise Everything We Know About 'My Life With The Walter Boys' Season 2 So Far 'Bridgerton' Season 4: Everything We Know So Far
CBC
20-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Biblical box office: How productions like The Chosen are bringing Christianity to a screen near you
Wave of Christian programming is changing tenor and culture of TV and Hollywood, experts say Last weekend was something of a Sunday school special for the box office. In a surprise show of strength, the Dickens adaptation King of Kings, telling the story of Jesus Christ's life and crucifixion, exploded with a $19-million US debut. For an animated movie in April, this was surprising — given the fact it was a biblical blockbuster, even more so. Dreamworks' The Prince of Egypt set the opening-weekend high water-mark for a faith-based animated film back in 1998. But in terms of scriptural media, the success of King of Kings is far from a one-off. The recent fifth season of The Chosen also outperformed expectations. Plus, the Christian series saw its first three parts premiere in theatres to a combined total of more than $36 million US, helping cement religious programming as an appetizing genre for studios and audiences alike. "People are hungry for something. They're hungry for change. They're hungry for positive. They're hungry for light," explained The Chosen 's Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus, during an interview with CBC. "They're hungry for the light that the gospels ultimately provide." Earlier this year, Amazon Prime Video's House of David — charting the rise of the biblical shepherd boy — had more than 22 million tuning in for the first 17 days after its February release. According to Amazon MGM Studios, that placed it in the top 10 of U.S. series debuts. Lionsgate's The Best Christmas Pageant Ever — the proselytizing, Pete Holmes-led Christmas movie — managed an already impressive $40 million US, which was made even more impressive by the fact it was competing with heavyweights Wicked and Moana 2. Meanwhile, Christ-derived stories from Martin Scorsese (The Life of Jesus), Terrence Malick (The Way of the Wind) and Mel Gibson (two sequels to The Passion) are all reportedly in the works. According to Roumie, that interest and the recent successes speak to a widespread fanbase with a variety of beliefs. "I think ... about 30 per cent of our audience globally does not identify as religious or churchgoing, whether that be agnostic or atheistic," he said of The Chosen. "To us, that's just an increasing proof that the power of this series is in its storytelling." It's far from the first time Christianity has buttressed the box office. In Hollywood's early efforts to differentiate itself from the new invention of television, studios shifted away from creating a lot of productions to funnelling their money into fewer but more big-budget spectacles, according to University of Bologna associate professor Marco Cucco. The hope was that they would convince audiences a trip to the theatre was worth it. To further cement the appeal, those early precursors to the modern-day blockbuster largely drew from historical stories, legends and fables that people were already aware of. That included biblical tales, like Ben-Hur, The Greatest Story Ever Told, 1961's live-action King of Kings and The Ten Commandments. It wasn't until the stunning success of Jaws fundamentally shifted the cinematic landscape toward action films in the mid-1970s that that biblical formula started to fade. 'It's supposed to speak to the human experience' Catholic priest and film critic Eric Mah said the wind had more or less left the sails for faith-based films. The reason for their return to prominence, he argued, is in the updated way in which these stories are told. "The thing about religion just in general, if it's lived authentically and is taught authentically, it's supposed to speak to the human experience," he said. "Before, the focus was on making Christian films with the purpose of catechesis or evangelization. And now I think people are just focused on making good films, which I think actually is the way to go, right?" But there's more than just faith at play. Many of these productions — including The Chosen and King of King s — got their start with Angel Studios. (After an initial association, The Chosen and Angel Studios parted ways in early 2024.) The studio was founded by brothers affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and has since pumped out a multitude of Christian and Christian-adjacent content. That includes 2023's Sound of Freedom, the seemingly secular film about child trafficking starring The Passion of the Christ 's Jim Caviezel. It would eventually become embroiled in a culture war, and found itself connected to religiosity despite having no overt link to it. LISTEN | Sound of Freedom's box-office success: Media Audio | Sound of Freedom's unlikely box office dominance Caption: Film critic Nick Allen and journalist Justin Ling explain how Sound of Freedom, a small independent film released by a faith-based studio, became the surprise movie success story of the summer — and how it's become a lightning rod in the divisive culture wars currently raging across North America. Open Full Embed in New Tab Loading external pages may require significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story pages. "Even though Sound of Freedom wasn't perhaps an explicitly Christian film, the fact that [audiences] made that connection between 'OK, this is the guy who played Jesus there,' that almost, in a certain sense, was enough to satisfy the religious longing," said Mah. But that connection went deeper than just a familiar face. Part of the association, Wall Street Journal entertainment reporter John Jurgensen says, is a cultural one. "Here was a movie that had zero to do, on the surface, with religion or God. But because of the story it was telling about child trafficking, it was kind of ringing a bell for people who identify as Christian or identify as religious who care about that as a subject," he said. Art in general, Jurgensen said, has become a "huge battleground" in the culture wars, where ideology is hashed out through the success of productions that come to represent those ideas. Jurgensen says if audiences believe that a culture or political bent has been historically underrepresented, it can motivate them to vote with their dollars to support it. From Josh Ross to the DNC, country music is officially back. Here's why How young men are changing what conservatism looks like in Canada "These things are emotional triggers for us, whether it's the music we listen to or the stories on screen that move us. And if audiences feel they come from a place that is native to these folks or to these fans and familiar, that just makes their following more passionate," he said. That's paired with an increased desire from audience for uplifting, positive content and a desire for independent productions — like The Chosen — separate from the "bubble of Hollywood." Jurgensen said the genre's rise is also at least partially tied to the pendulum of cultural trends that isn't likely to swing back anytime soon. "What we spend our money on, what we show to our families, has really become a point of contention for people who are staking out just different ways of thinking, and who want to see their viewpoints represented on the screens that they sit in front of," he said. "It's not necessarily the reason someone is buying that ticket. But I have a feeling that when pressed to talk about how it fits into their broader views of the world, they really see this as part of who they are."
CBC
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Holy box office: Bible stories make huge comeback
The Bible is back in a big way as movie studios and streamers sign big-budget deals to develop more faith-based content after the huge success of movies like King of Kings and The Sound of Freedom.
