Box office
Do You Believe? opened theatrically in 1,320 venues on March 20, 2015, and earned $3,591,282 in its first weekend, ranking number six in the domestic box office, behind The Divergent Series: Insurgent , Cinderella , Run All Night , The Gunman , and Kingsman: The Secret Service . [3]
Critical response
Do You Believe? received negative reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 25% rating, based on 20 reviews, leaving a rating average of 4.4/10. [8] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 22 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". [9]
Film reviewer for The Dove Foundation, Edwin L. Carpenter starts his review with, "...the best faith-based film I have ever seen!" [10] Writing for The Times-Picayune , Mike Scott describes the film as, "It is not mainstream entertainment; it is mainstream Sunday school – which is fine if this is what you want to see at the movie theater." [11] Scott Foundas, Chief Film Critic at Variety magazine, pans the film with "But when all its threads are finally pulled into place, Do You Believe? proves about as spiritually enlightening as a Kmart throw rug." [12] Huffington Post's Jackie Cooper gave the film 7/10. [13]
Michael Foust, writing for The Christian Post nominates the film as the new best evangelistic film ever, he goes on to reason, "The majority of movie critics will likely give it poor reviews, partially because it is more overtly evangelistic than any successful faith-based theatrical movie in recent history. But I'm guessing those who see the film will like it." [14] Writing for RogerEbert.com , Peter Sobczynski reports, "Subtle as a sledgehammer to the toes and only slightly more entertaining, Do You Believe? will no doubt play well with viewers already predisposed towards liking it because it has been designed to reconfirm their already deeply-felt beliefs rather than doing anything that might cause them to think about or challenge those beliefs in any meaningful way." [15] Newsday's Rafer Guzmán gave the film 0.5 stars out of 4 and criticized the cardboard characters and overly sentimental narratives, ultimately concluding that "the movie is primarily interested in asking a question that it has already answered.". [16]
