Christian film industry

The Christian film industry is an umbrella term for films containing a Christian themed message or moral, produced by Christian filmmakers to a Christian audience, or even some films that are just marketed to Christians. They are often interdenominational films, but can also be films targeting a specific denomination of Christianity.

Popular mainstream studio productions of films with strong Christian messages or Biblical stories, like Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, The Passion of the Christ, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Book of Eli, and Machine Gun Preacher are not specifically part of the Christian film industry, being more agnostic about their audiences' religious beliefs.

Many films from the Christian film industry are produced by openly confessing Christians in independent companies mainly targeting a Christian audience. This has been on the rise since the success of Sherwood Pictures' Fireproof, the highest grossing independent film of 2008. The success of Fireproof may have been due in part to a door opened by the box office success of The Passion of the Christ.

Before the invention of the movie projector, European audiences gathered in darkened rooms to watch magic lantern presentations. Catholic priest Athanasius Kircher promoted the magic lantern by publishing the book Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae in 1680. Controversy soon followed as priests and masons used the lanterns "to persuade followers of their ability to control both the forces of darkness and enlightenment" and temperance groups used the lanterns to fight alcoholism. In the 1800s, missionaries such as David Livingston used the lanterns to present the Gospel in Africa. After movie theaters emerged, magic lanterns lost their popularity and disappeared from the public.

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