FAITH & FAMILY: Cloud Ten renews biblical focus

But rapid growth set in after the firm embraced DVD and experienced the phenomenal success of Left Behind (2000), which spawned two equally profitable sequels, 2002's Left Behind II: Tribulation Force and 2005's Left Behind: World at War.

“Those titles made us mainstream,” says Andre van Heerden, the company's newly promoted CEO. “They got us into Wal-Mart, Costco, Sam's Club and other big retail chains.”

The series also spawned a legal dispute, which was recently settled.

For a time, the company attempted to market films that injected Christian themes and messages into mainstream genre movies, such as the recent Smuggler's Ransom, a contemporary action-adventure.

But van Heerden maintains that Cloud Ten has gone back to its roots. “We've stopped looking for that elusive crossover hit and will be concentrating on finding stories with more obvious gospel connections,” he says.

Uncertain times definitely boost interest in faith-based stories, van Heerden says. “We noticed a spike in sales as the millennium approached,” he recalls, “but after 2000, when the Y2K scare went away, there was a slight lessening of interest.”

Nevertheless, demand for faith-based films has “picked up again,” van Heerden says. With consumer demand accelerating, he expects to release four movies per year, two acquired from outside filmmakers and two produced by Cloud Ten itself.

On Sept. 2, Cloud Ten released its first DVD box set, containing four previously released films set in the end times: Apocalypse, Tribulation, Revelation and Judgment. That same day, the supplier also unveiled The Genius Club, a recent acquisition starring well-known Hollywood actors Tom Sizemore, Stephen Baldwin and Tricia Helfer in a topical story.

Van Heerden is especially excited about Saving God (street Oct. 14, prebook Sept. 16), a new production starring Ving Rhames. It will be Cloud Ten's first title to be released on both DVD and Blu-ray.

The company's distribution plan involves moving product through disparate channels. The Nashville-based CNI distributorship, for example, wholesales Cloud Ten releases to churches and ministries, which then sell the films to parishioners. In 2005, CNI shipped copies of Left Behind 3 to 3,200 churches in one weekend.

Other titles, including Genius Club and Saving God, have been parceled out to “secular” distributors for sale to mainstream retailers. Genius Club is handled by Koch Entertainment, and Saving God is sold by Echo Bridge, which acquired distribution rights after the movie's successful screening at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Both companies have an active interest in the Christian market.

“We're not locking ourselves into one specific method of distribution,” van Heerden says. “Our category is fluid and dynamic, and we'll adapt to the market as needed while supplying the type of product our customers clearly want.”