The Best Christmas Pageant Ever | |
---|---|
Directed by | Dallas Jenkins |
Screenplay by |
|
Based on | The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson |
Produced by |
|
Starring |
|
Cinematography | C. Kim Miles |
Edited by | John Quinn |
Music by |
|
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Lionsgate |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 95 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $10 million [2] |
Box office | $38.7 million [3] [4] |
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a 2024 American Christmas comedy-drama film directed by Dallas Jenkins, based on the 1972 novel by Barbara Robinson. Starring Judy Greer, Pete Holmes, Molly Belle Wright, and Lauren Graham, the plot centers around the Herdmans, a group of juvenile delinquent siblings who have inadvertently found themselves starring in their small town's Christmas pageant.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival on November 2, 2024, and was released theatrically by Lionsgate on November 8, 2024. It received generally positive reviews from critics.
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2024) |
The Herdmans are six siblings who have a reputation for being the worst kids in the world. They are also labeled as Juvenile Delinquents who mostly end up in jail. However, when they take over the local church pageant during the holidays, they just might teach a shocked community the true meaning of Christmas. The Herdmans may have a chance for redemption, when Grace Bradley the new pageant director gives them a chance to reform by letting them perform in the pageant. [5]
In November 2023, it was reported that an adaptation of the 1972 children's novel was in the works at Lionsgate, with Dallas Jenkins directing the film. [5] Principal photography began on December 6, 2023 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada [5] and wrapped on January 27, 2024. [6] [7]
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever premiered in Los Angeles on November 2, 2024, [8] and was released in the United States on November 8, 2024. [9] It was previously scheduled for November 15, 2024 before moving forward a week earlier to avoid competition with another Christmas film, Red One . [10]
In the United States and Canada, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever was released alongside Heretic , Elevation , Weekend in Taipei , and the wide expansion of Anora , and was projected to gross $6–8 million from 3,020 theaters in its opening weekend, with some projections going as high as $10 million. [11] The film made $5 million on its first day, which included $2.3 million and $500,000 from Sunday and Thursday night previews, respectively, for a total preview gross of $2.8 million. [2] It went on to debut to $10.8 million, finishing in third behind holdover Venom: The Last Dance and Heretic. [12] The film made $5.3 million in its second weekend (a drop of 51.3%) and then $3.5 million in its third, finishing in third and sixth place, respectively. [13] [14] Its total worldwide gross is $38.7 million. [3]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 92% of 61 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.1/10.The website's consensus reads: "Decking the halls with unflappable charm and sincere spiritual conviction, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is winningly wholesome family entertainment." [15] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 60 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. [16] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it an 88% overall positive score. [2]
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a children's novel written by Barbara Robinson in 1972. It tells the story of six misfit children who volunteer to star in their town's Sunday school Christmas pageant, and end up teaching the town the true meaning of Christmas.
CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data.
The Hunger Games is a media franchise centering on a series of science fiction dystopian adventure films, based on the novel series of the same name by Suzanne Collins. The films are distributed by Lionsgate. The series feature an ensemble cast including Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark, Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne, Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy, Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket, Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman, and Donald Sutherland as President Snow. In the prequel film, Tom Blyth stars as Coriolanus Snow, Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird, Josh Andrés Rivera as Sejanus Plinth, Hunter Schafer as Tigris Snow, Peter Dinklage as Casca Highbottom, Viola Davis as Dr. Volumnia Gaul and Jason Schwartzman as Lucretius "Lucky" Flickerman.
A Star Is Born is a 2018 American musical romantic drama produced and directed by Bradley Cooper with a screenplay by Cooper, Eric Roth and Will Fetters. It stars Cooper and Lady Gaga in lead roles, with Dave Chappelle, Andrew Dice Clay and Sam Elliott in supporting roles. It follows an alcoholic musician (Cooper) who discovers and falls in love with a young singer (Gaga). It is the fourth American movie made of the story, after the original 1937 romantic drama and its 1954 and 1976 remakes. Principal photography began at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2017.
Wonder is a 2017 American coming of age comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Chbosky, who co-wrote the screenplay with Steven Conrad and Jack Thorne. It is based on the 2012 novel by R. J. Palacio and stars Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson, Jacob Tremblay, Mandy Patinkin, and Daveed Diggs.
Moonfall is a 2022 science fiction disaster film co-written, directed, and produced by Roland Emmerich. It stars Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, John Bradley, Michael Peña, Charlie Plummer, Kelly Yu, Carolina Bartczak, and Donald Sutherland. It follows two former astronauts alongside a conspiracy theorist who discover the hidden truth about the Moon when it suddenly leaves its orbit. Shot in Montreal on a $138–146 million budget, it is one of the most expensive independently produced films ever made.
Kingdom Story Company, is an American film and television studio in partnership with Lionsgate specializing in the production of Christian films. It was founded in 2019 by the Erwin Brothers, Kevin Downes, and Tony Young and has operations in Nashville, Tennessee and Los Angeles, California.
Dallas Jenkins is an American film and television director, writer and producer. He is best known as the creator, director, co-writer and executive producer of The Chosen, the first multi-season series about the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Jenkins' career is focused on Christian media.
Saw X is a 2023 American horror film directed and edited by Kevin Greutert, and written by Peter Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg. The film is the tenth installment in the Saw film series, serving as a direct interquel set between Saw (2004) and Saw II (2005). It stars Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith, who reprise their roles from the previous films, alongside Synnøve Macody Lund, Steven Brand, Renata Vaca, and Michael Beach. The film sees John Kramer (Bell) travelling to Mexico in hopes that an experimental procedure may cure his terminal cancer. John later discovers that the operation is a scam, prompting him to kidnap those responsible and subject them to his trademark death traps as retribution, with Amanda Young (Smith) acting as his accomplice.
About My Father is a 2023 American comedy film directed by Laura Terruso from a screenplay by Sebastian Maniscalco and Austen Earl. The film stars Maniscalco and is loosely based on his life and his relationship with his father, played by Robert De Niro. Leslie Bibb, Anders Holm, David Rasche, and Kim Cattrall co-star in supporting roles.
Red One is a 2024 American Christmas action film directed by Jake Kasdan and written by Chris Morgan, from an original story by Hiram Garcia. It stars Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, J. K. Simmons, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, Nick Kroll, Kristofer Hivju, and Wesley Kimmel. In the film, Callum Drift (Johnson), the head of North Pole security, teams up with the hacker Jack O'Malley (Evans) to locate a kidnapped Santa Claus (Simmons) on Christmas Eve.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is a 2023 American dystopian action film directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt, based on the 2020 novel of the same name by Suzanne Collins. It is the fifth installment in The Hunger Games franchise and is a prequel to The Hunger Games (2012). The film stars Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Hunter Schafer, Jason Schwartzman, Peter Dinklage, Josh Andrés Rivera, and Viola Davis. In the film, Coriolanus Snow (Blyth) is called on to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Zegler), a Games tribute, as he seeks to restore his family's prosperity in Panem.
Plane is a 2023 American action thriller film directed by Jean-François Richet from a screenplay by Charles Cumming and J. P. Davis. The film stars Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Yoson An, and Tony Goldwyn. The plot centers on a pilot (Butler) allying with a prisoner to save his passengers from a hostile territory in which they make an emergency landing.
Here is a 2024 American drama film produced and directed by Robert Zemeckis, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth, based on the 2014 graphic novel by Richard McGuire. Echoing the source material, the film is told in a nonlinear fashion: the story covers the events of a single spot of land and its inhabitants, spanning from the distant past to the 21st century. During the film, the screen is often subdivided into multiple panes, presenting events from different time periods simultaneously. The film stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany, and Kelly Reilly, with digital de-aging being used on much of the cast to have them portray their characters over the course of the different time periods.
Never Let Go is a 2024 American survival horror thriller film directed by Alexandre Aja and written by KC Coughlin and Ryan Grassby. The film stars Halle Berry.
Heretic is a 2024 American horror film, written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. It stars Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East as two Mormon missionaries who attempt to convert a reclusive man but realize he is more dangerous than he seems.