This year saw Christian entertainment that didn’t just talk to faith audiences

The giant, air conditioned room was a refuge from the muggy Florida weather for thousands of attendees who stayed at the convention center into the evening to hear Dallas Jenkins speak. It had already been a long day at “The Chosen” Insiders Conference, but that didn’t seem to matter to people who skipped out on swimming in the giant resort style pool outside or retreating to their hotel rooms.

Jenkins announced some new projects, then later that same night some attendees saw an early screening of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.”

Hindsight is 20-20, but even during that moment, it was clear Jenkins had been brewing something different in the world where faith and entertainment meet. Jenkins’ latest offering “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” and the upcoming collaboration with Bear Grylls don’t fit neatly into the faith-based genre — at least not as it’s been understood.

The project Jenkins and others like Kevin Downes and the Erwin brothers seem to be involved in is making quality entertainment that understands faith. It treats faith as part of people’s lives and focuses more on showing that than preaching about it. Taking this tact makes the movies and television shows accessible to wider audiences.

Calling it faith-based entertainment doesn’t quite fit the bill because the success and style of shows like “The Chosen” extends beyond what is typically under that umbrella.

In this space — somewhere between faith-based entertainment and completely secular entertainment — filmmakers have diligently carved out an area to play in: what happens when you portray people of faith like you portray everyone else. It seems intuitive enough, but this year’s box-office hauls, viewership numbers and announcements of new projects shows what’s brewing under the surface: an evolution of faith and entertainment.

There are, of course, releases this year that didn’t exactly excite religious audiences because they were the same tired note of misrepresentations and stereotypes. An entire separate story could be written on those. But instead, this story is interested in the kinds of stories that resonate both with religious and secular audiences.

To start, just look at the reviews for “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” It received positive coverage from The New York Times. Deadline’s chief film critic Pete Hammond said he wouldn’t be surprised if the movie became a perennial like “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “A Christmas Story.”

“It also is that increasingly rare so-called ‘faith based’ film that doesn’t try to hit you on the head with a sermon,” said Hammond. Later he praised the movie for its cast and “sharp production design, lovely cinematography and a smart approach that never talks down to its audience.”

But it wasn’t just positive reviews that carried the movie forward.

As of Wednesday, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” has brought in more than $34 million, per Box Office Mojo. This puts it in the top 50 of releases this year domestically. Its budget is considerably more modest than other films on the list. It has paced well ahead of other movies it released around the same time as — notably, “Heretic” which sits at $26 million.

This is just one example. It’s also worth considering how “The Chosen,” “Ordinary Angels,” “Unsung Hero” and “Cabrini” fared both in terms of box-office numbers and reviews.

“The Chosen” released Season 4 in three batches — Episodes 1 to 3, Episodes 4 to 6 and Episodes 7 to 8. Altogether, the show brought in over $32 million at the domestic box office. Releasing television shows in theaters is not common to say the least. But the model is one the show keeps pursuing. All three sets of episodes made into the top 100 highest grossing releases this year.

“Ordinary Angels,” “Unsung Hero” and “Cabrini” all had modest budgets and each earned more than $19 million at the box office. Variety’s Courtney Howard said the co-directors of “Unsung Hero” ended up crafting “a soul-stirring testament to the power of family and faith in the process.” This movie was another Lionsgate release (Kingdom Story Company).

“Cabrini,” a biopic directed by Alejandro Monteverge, was said to be not a perfect movie, but a “dignified one that honors the little-known efforts of these fearless women,” by a reviewer at RogerEbert.com.

As for “Ordinary Angels,” Jocelyn Noveck praised the movie in a review for The Associated Press, and was particularly laudatory of Hilary Swank’s performance.

“Luckily Swank is on hand, almost singlehandedly raising the material to a level that keeps you wanting to watch,” said Noveck. “And sometimes, for a good cry at the movies, that’s really all you need.”

Netflix’s “Mary” received a low critics score on Rotten Tomatoes (30%), but still, the creation of the epic shows that one of the biggest streaming services out there recognizes that there’s something to the faith market. The streaming service made a deal with filmmakers Tyler Perry and DeVon Franklin for multiple movies and TV shows centered around faith.

In terms of Latter-day Saint movies, there was “Six Days in August” and “Escape from Germany.” Both had limited theatrical runs. Overall, “Escape from Germany” got just over $2.6 million at the box office and “Six Days in August” brought in $387,659.

The Wonder Project, started by “Jesus Revolution” director and Netflix executive Kelly Merryman Hoogstraten (Jenkins is a special adviser), partnered with Amazon MGM Studios. Variety reported that the deal includes Amazon ordering the series “House of David” for Prime Video.

When announcing the project and how it raised more than $75 million last year, Erwin said, “The dream of the Wonder Project is to create a trusted brand that serves the faith and values audience globally with movies and TV shows they didn’t know were possible. We will achieve this by giving the creatives dedicated to this audience (including myself) a level of freedom and resources they’ve never had before.”

It’s also worth circling back to Jenkins and the creation of 5&2 Studios.

5&2 Studios has announced several projects: what’s essentially a sequel to “The Chosen” (Acts of the Apostles), a series about Moses, another about Joseph, “The Chosen” cast members going into the wilderness with Bear Grylls and an animated series for kids called “The Chosen Adventures.” Jenkins has said the effort came after hearing from fans of the show that they were hungry for more content and they had the team to do it.

There’s plenty to watch out for in 2025. But one thing will be key to watch — can this band of Christian filmmakers continue to make productions with excellent technical details and ties to religion that have broad appeal?

This seems to be something Jenkins understands particularly well. And maybe why he was able to expand “The Chosen” universe.