ChristianCinema.com Presents Christian Movie Madness’ Round Four
The First Annual Online Christian Movie Tournament, Connecting Fans and Filmmakers
SAN ANTONIO, TX – March 26, 2015 – ChristianCinema.com is hosting the First Annual CHRISTIAN MOVIE MADNESS TOURNAMENT and the field of 64 has been narrowed to the final eight films in Round Four. The first contest of its kind, audiences have been voting for their favorite films in a bracket-style tournament competition since early March. ChristianCinema.com aims to bolster the Christian movie industry by creating an industry-wide buzz about audience-favorite films, and give exposure to lesser known, but qualified titles. Voting continues until March 28 to determine which films will compete in the upcoming two rounds to reach the final favorite film. ChristianCinema.com is part of the FrontGate Web Network.
The inaugural Round Four features The Passion of the Christ versus God’s Not Dead, Love Comes Softly versus What If, Soul Surfer versus Kirk Cameron presents Monumental, and The Chronicles of Narnia versus The Blind Side. Whether it’s the highest grossing R-rated film of all time, or an independent documentary, these films represent the final eight films of the first tournament.
Since 1999, ChristianCinema.com has made deliberate efforts to connect filmmakers with the fans that love and buy their movies. With this round, it’s obvious that the filmmakers and fans have taken to the competition. “This competition shows that fans care about independent films as well as big ticket ones,” says Bobby Downes, President and co-founder of ChristianCinema.com. “There’s a real diversity in the last eight films standing.”
The Christian Movie Madness contest is promoted on ChristianCinema.com’s website, Facebook page, and via Twitter, but has its own site, www.ChristianMovieMadness.com, where votes in each round are cast.
The tournament has an industry-wide reach, across multiple genres. For the first few rounds of voting, movies were divided into “conferences” based on theme: Faith and Theology, Bible Stories and Epics, Love and Romance, Comedy, Sports, Action/Adventure, Hot Social Topics, and True Stories. Fans voted in a single head-to-head or continue clicking through to vote for multiple titles.
“While we know that not everyone has seen every film, we’re excited by the way voting has progressed with over 85,000 votes cast in the first 3 rounds alone,” says Jared Geesey, Vice President of ChristianCinema.com. “Fans have shown that it’s easy to vote through and we’re looking forward to seeing who will be voted the winner on April 2nd.“
ChristianCinema.com has also sweetened the pot for voters by offering an immediate discount on the purchase of any film in the Christian Movie Madness tournament. Voters can also be notified each week of the winners by email so that they can continue to vote and share as films make their way up the tournament bracket.
The remaining tournament dates are be as follows:
Round 4 – through March 28
Round 5 – through March 31
Championship – through April 2
For more information about the tournament, visit ChristianMovieMadness.com or Facebook.com/ChristianCinema.
To obtain artwork for the tournament or the Facebook meme for a specific film’s head-to-head competition, contact Erik Knudsen at Erik@ChristianCinema.com.
ABOUT CHRISTIANCINEMA.COM
Founded in 1999, when video stores rarely carried faith films, Bobby Downes co-founded ChristianCinema.com to connect independent Christian filmmakers to their audiences. The site is now the world’s largest selection of faith-affirming and family-approved films on the Internet, hosting over 4,000 movie titles in its database. What began with the sale of just one movie grew to include a DVD rental subscription program as well as digital video streaming on demand. Consumers could finally have a reliable source for faith-based films that are pre-screened to ensure a Biblical worldview. To further the goal of connecting filmmakers and audiences, ChristianCinema.com also added movie reviews, news articles, a daily and weekly radio program featuring interviews with filmmakers, and a weekly newsletter that serves a variety of industry leaders. Bobby Downes and Vice President Jared Geesey spent a decade and a half developing relationships with filmmakers, retailers, and distributors, whom they now serve with up-to-date movie news, an industry release calendar, a barometer for gauging each week’s most popular movies, and the promotion of films to 250,000 unique monthly visitors and 93,000 weekly email recipients. Follow @ChristianCinema and @Bobby_Downes on Twitter.
ABOUT FRONTGATE MEDIA
Award-winning FrontGate (http://FrontGateMedia.com) is the largest internet and events group, and marketing service, reaching the faith and family values audience. Serving as “Your Gateway To The Christian Audience,” FrontGate’s Web Network provides reach to more than 10 million people and 5 million email subscribers. The firm also provides Faith-based market Strategy Development, Media Buying, Public Relations, and Social Marketing. Founded in 2001, FrontGate received the Best Marketing Website and Best Faith-based Website Awards in the 2014 Internet Advertising Competition, and Standard of Excellence Awards in the Marketing and Faith-based categories in the 2014 WebAwards. The company plays a key role in the success of for-profit and non-profit organizations seeking the faith-based and faith-friendly audiences.
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To discuss the Christian Movie Madness Tournament or for interviews with ChristianCinema.com Founder Bobby Downes, or to discuss the faith-based marketplace and FrontGate Media, please contact Lori Heiselman at 714-553-5181 or Lori@FrontGateMedia.com.