Pinnacle Peak Pictures
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File:Pinnacle Peak Pictures.png | |
Private | |
Industry | Entertainment |
Founded | November 21, 2005 |
Founders | David A. R. White Russell Wolfe |
Headquarters | Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S. |
Key people
|
David A. R. White Michael Scott (CEO)[1] |
Products | Christian films |
Services | Educational curriculum |
Revenue | $27.4 million (2018 box office receipts)[2] |
Website | pinnaclepeakpictures |
Pinnacle Peak Pictures (formerly Pure Flix Entertainment) is an American evangelical Christian film production and distribution studio founded by David A. R. White and Russell Wolfe.[3] Pinnacle Peak produces Christian films, including God's Not Dead (2014), Do You Believe? (2015), Woodlawn (2015), The Case for Christ (2017), and Unplanned (2019). Since 2014, films produced and distributed by Pure Flix have collectively grossed over $195 million at the worldwide box office.[4] The company has headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Contents
History
Pinnacle Peak was founded in 2005 by David A. R. White, Michael Scott, Russell Wolfe, Randy Travis[5][6][7][8][9] and Elizabeth Travis as Pure Flix Entertainment[10][11]
Since its foundation, the company has created many films, such as The Wager,[12] Home Beyond the Sun, In the Blink of an Eye, Sarah's Choice,[13] A Greater Yes: The Story of Amy Newhouse, The Book of Ruth: Journey of Faith, Holyman Undercover, and Samson.
The company produced Jerusalem Countdown in 2011, with 10 West Studios.[14] They also produced the first two seasons of TBN's Travel the Road. God's Not Dead (2014) starring Kevin Sorbo, Shane Harper and Dean Cain[15] earned over $60 million in the U.S. box office and was released in digital format by Lionsgate on August 5, 2014.[16]
Since late 2015, Pinnacle Peak had its own theatrical distribution arm.[17] In late 2016, Pinnacle Peak announced a homeschooling curriculum for families with home-schooled children[18] and decided to allow their users to delete words such as "hell" and "damn" from their programming.[19] The company has teamed up with the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference to supply further opportunities for Hispanic actors to improve the media representation of the Hispanic community.[20][21]
In 2016, Pinnacle Peak announced that it has struck a long-term multi-year distribution deal with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, which would officially manage the home media releases of every Pure Flix-produced film, starting with Woodlawn.[22]
On November 12, 2020, Pure Flix announced that its eponymous streaming video service was being acquired by Sony Pictures Entertainment, but that its production arm "Pure Flix Entertainment" is not part of the deal.[23] The deal was complete later that year, with Sony integrating Pure Flix streaming into its Affirm Films banner.[24][25] In January 2021, Pure Flix announced that following the sale of its eponymous streaming service to Sony, it had rebranded as Pinnacle Peak Pictures.[26]
God's Not Dead series
Their film God's Not Dead was 2014's highest-grossing independent film[27] and one of the most successful independent faith-based films of all time despite negative criticism.[28] A second film, God's Not Dead 2 grossed over $1.4 million in Brazil[29] and was considered by Vox to be "moderately commercially successful".[30] A third film, titled God's Not Dead 3: A Light in Darkness,[31] and released on March 30, 2018. A fourth film, God's Not Dead: We The People, was released in October 2021. The Christian band Newsboys appear in and provide music for the first two films in the series.[32] Legalities related to the Johnson Amendment were referenced in the second film.[33]
Awards and nominations
Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
---|---|---|---|
2014 | God's Not Dead | Inspirational Film of the Year - GMA Dove Awards | Won[34] |
Productions and distributions
2000s
- Travel the Road (television series, 2003–present)
- Home Beyond the Sun (February 20, 2004)
- The Wager (June 15, 2007)
- The Imposter (October 12, 2008)
- A Greater Yes: The Story of Amy Newhouse (May 28, 2009)
- Sarah's Choice (November 1, 2009)
- In the Blink of an Eye (November 17, 2009)
- The Book of Ruth: Journey of Faith (December 15, 2009)
2010s
- Holyman Undercover (April 10, 2010)
- What If... (August 20, 2010)[35]
- The Bill Collector (September 3, 2010)
- The Encounter (May 3, 2011)
- Jerusalem Countdown (August 26, 2011)[36]
- Ghost Soldiers (26 April 2012)
- Apostle Peter and the Last Supper (February 21, 2012)[37]
- The Mark (October 16, 2012)
- The Book of Esther (June 11, 2013)[38]
- The Book of Daniel (October 1, 2013)[39]
- God's Not Dead (March 21, 2014)[40]
- Moms' Night Out (May 9, 2014)
- Do You Believe? (March 20, 2015)[41]
- Old Fashioned (February 6, 2015)
- Faith of Our Fathers (July 1, 2015)
- Woodlawn (October 16, 2015)[42]
- God's Not Dead 2 (April 1, 2016)
- Hillsong: Let Hope Rise (September 16, 2016)
- I'm Not Ashamed (October 21, 2016)
- The Case for Christ (April 7, 2017)[43]
- Same Kind of Different as Me (October 20, 2017)
- Samson (February 16, 2018)
- God's Not Dead 3: A Light in Darkness (March 30, 2018)
- Unbroken: Path to Redemption (September 14, 2018)
- Shake Off the World (September 15, 2018)[44]
- Little Women (September 28, 2018)
- Indivisible (October 26, 2018)
- Unplanned (March 29, 2019)[45]
2020s
- Redeeming Love (2021)[46]
- God's Not Dead: We The People (October 4, 2021)[47]
On-demand service
From 2015 up until 2020, Pinnacle Peak also had an Internet video on demand service simply named Pure Flix.[48] The company was founded by David A. R. White, replacing the streaming platform "I Am Flix".[49] It specializes in Christian streaming media and video-on-demand online.[48] Pure Flix was acquired by Sony Pictures in 2020.
Subsidiaries
Pinnacle Peak owns a subsidiary known as Quality Flix.[50] Quality Flix works with international films, in contrast to Pinnacle Peak, which is primarily focused on distribution of films within the United States.[51]
Controversies
In 2019, Pure Flix's anti-abortion film Unplanned attracted controversy in both mainstream and evangelical media. Some Christian commentators perceived the film as being unfairly censored after it received an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America and following a brief and subsequently rescinded suspension of the film's Twitter account.[52][53] Michael Gryboski, writing for Christian Post, criticized major Canadian film distributors (such as Cineplex) refusal to screen the film in the country, calling it a "de facto ban".[54] Film critic Normal Wilner countered that statement by accusing the distributors of employing disingenuous tactics to "manufacture a controversy", pointing out that the film was eventually shown in about 25 Cineplex and Landmark theaters in Canada and claiming nothing had prevented an earlier release. In turn, he pointed out Pure Flix's decision of deliberately choosing not to screen Unplanned for critics to avoid negative reviews.[55] After its release some criticized Unplanned for 'dangerous' inaccuracies.[56]
Despite Pure Flix films generally being well-received by its evangelical Christian viewership, the company has also attracted criticism from several Christian commentators. Film critic Alissa Wilkinson, who wrote for Christianity Today and teaches at the Christian King's College in New York City, criticized Pure Flix films for being intellectually unstimulating and reinforcing their audience's prejudices "instead of exercising and challenging the imagination of their audience in ways that would make their audience better Christians".[57] She also criticized the studio's successful God's Not Dead trilogy for being "far more interested in bolstering a certain sort of persecution complex than in encouraging its audience toward Christlike behavior".[58] Justin Chang, another film critic who identifies as Christian, likewise criticized Pure Flix's brand of faith-based films for what he perceived as their "self-victimizing" depiction of the evangelical Christian community.[59] Kayla Bartsch, writing for National Review, argued that Pure Flix's films "work to confirm the hypothesis that American Christianity must needs be artless and unrefined", making a case for more nuanced and stimulating religious films.[60]
See also
References
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- ↑ Pure Flix Box Office Receipts by Release Date | Box Office Mojo
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- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20070109054939/http://www.pureflixentertainment.com/
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Mia Galuppo, hollywoodreporter.com, Faith-Based Company Pure Flix Launches Theatrical Distribution Arm, USA, November 17, 2015
- ↑ KATHERINE ROSMAN, nytimes.com, Forget Netflix and Chill. Try Pure Flix and Pray., USA, APRIL 22, 2017
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Jerry Bowyer, The Case For "The Case For Christ" And Other Christian-Themed Films, forbes.com, USA, September 25, 2017
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External links
- Official website
- Pinnacle Peak Pictures at the Internet Movie Database
- Watch: Pure Flix and Chill: The David A.R. White Story-Filmmaker Magazine
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- Articles with short description
- Pages with broken file links
- 2005 establishments in Arizona
- American companies established in 2005
- American film studios
- Christian film production companies
- Companies based in Scottsdale, Arizona
- Conservative media in the United States
- Film production companies of the United States
- Homeschooling advocates
- Mass media companies established in 2005
- Television production companies of the United States