20th Century Fox sees box office gold in faith

20th Century Fox sees box office gold in faith

The entertainment business has become all about hitting the niches and hitting them hard - targeting works for specific, passionate audiences.

Or, in this case of 20th Century Fox's new venture, a Passionate audience.

After Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ demonstrated that a subtitled, bloody Gospel tale could drum up US$612 million in worldwide box office, Hollywood's studios have been trying to tap further into the Christian market.

Disney marketed The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to churches a la The Passion and reaped a US$292 million domestic gross and US$745 million total worldwide.

Now Fox has announced the creation of an entire film division devoted to Christian content: Fox Faith.

Yes, wags have noted, this is the same Fox whose TV division has brought us The Simple Life, Temptation Island and When Animals Attack.

Yes, the conservative-wary have noted, this is the same Fox whose Fox News Channel is the Bush administration's best media friend.

Yes, movie fans might note, this is the same Fox whose speciality-film division, Fox Searchlight, brought us the excellent Sideways and Little Miss Sunshine and is soon to unleash Richard Linklater's food-industry-scorching Fast Food Nation.

Fox also is about to launch Fox Atomic, a division focusing on teen-oriented films.

Can Fox Barrio, Soul Fox and Fox Oy! be far behind?

Fox Faith actually is spun off from the company's home entertainment division, which distributed the Passion DVD and already had been marketing direct-to-video releases to a growing network of Christian congregations and households.

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