Hollywood Comes to Jesus

The Chosen presents Jesus and his disciples through a character who dances and jokes. The series premiered in 2019 and streams on Amazon Prime and the Chosen app. A sixth season covering the Crucifixion is scheduled for release this fall and was funded by 100,000 people who donated more than $70 million. Season 3 episodes shown in theaters in 2022 performed strongly on a per-screen basis. ChosenCon brings thousands of fans together, and the production complex in Midlothian, Texas includes detailed sets such as a scaled fishing village and a pond representing the Sea of Galilee. Fans participate through social-media live streams and donations, reinforcing a sense of shared dependence.

"Jesus Christ, as he is portrayed by the actor Jonathan Roumie in the TV series "The Chosen," dances and makes plenty of jokes. The show, which premiered in 2019 and streams on Amazon Prime (and on The Chosen app), tells the story of Jesus and his disciples. A sixth season (which covers the Crucifixion), will be released this fall, and was funded by a hundred thousand people, who donated more than seventy million dollars to the production."

"When the first two episodes of Season 3 were shown in movie theatres, in 2022, they outperformed every other film-apart from "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever"-on a per-screen basis. During her reporting, Monroe visited ChosenCon, the show's annual convention, and met some of the thousands of fans who attended. She also spoke with its creator, director, co-writer, and executive producer, Dallas Jenkins, who gave her a tour of the show's sprawling production complex, in Midlothian, Texas."

"The sets include a scaled-down version of the fishing village where Jesus lived for a while and a pond that serves as the Sea of Galilee. Jenkins is "a tall, chiselled cold-plunge devotee in his early fifties," Monroe reports, whose father became an evangelical celebrity for writing the "Left Behind" series of novels about the end times, inspired by the Book of Revelation. On social-media live streams, Jenkins and his wife connect with fans and solicit donations."

""With the decline in churchgoing," Monroe writes, "observant Christians are now members of a distinct subculture, one that can be targeted by marketers who speak the idiom of faith." Fans are invested in what shows get made, and are convinced of their mutual dependence. "They couldn't make it without us," a woman in her eighties tells Monroe at Ch"

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