Critics were a little mixed on the film overall and it carries a so-so B CinemaScore. (You can read /Film’s 7 out of 10 review right here.) It’s by no means a critical disaster or anything like that, but the reviews weren’t effusive enough to get people talking about it. Word-of-mouth buzz figures to be minimal to non-existent in the coming weeks, which is bad news for Legendary (which produced the film with Sony distributing) as the film carries a reported $40 million budget, not accounting for marketing. Making matters worse is the fact that American-made Christian religious tales tend to have somewhat limited appeal overseas.
One thing we learned in 2023 is that faith-based cinema can put a lot of butts in seats, with movies like “Jesus Revolution” and even the theatrical release of the TV series “The Chosen” becoming relative hits. No movie proved it better than “Sound of Freedom” though, with the controversial film taking in a whopping $249 million worldwide, including $184 million domestically. But when these films work, they tend to be pretty straightforward attempts at reaching the target audience. “The Book of Clarence” attempted to do something a little different.
Samuel, who also directed Netflix’s “The Harder They Fall,” tried to take a familiar story and put a unique spin on it. With a hip-hop soundtrack and a comedic tone on display in the trailers, it was clear that the average ticket buyer for something like “Sound of Freedom” wasn’t necessarily going to see this as being equally appealing. Credit to Legendary and Sony for trying something interesting here. The only hope now is that the film can catch on once it hits VOD and streaming.
“The Book of Clarence” is currently in theaters.