'October Baby' Sweeps Box Office, Tops $5 Million
Micro-budget film "October Baby" has proven to be a huge success despite controversy and has topped $5 million at the box office, shocking the film industry.
The dramatic film opened in March opposite "The Hunger Games" but enamored audiences with a tale of a young woman who uncovers the truth about her past.
The pro-life film touches a subject seldom covered in Hollywood: abortion. Starring "Smallville" star John Schneifer, Jasmine Guy, and newcomers Rachel Hendrix and Jason Burkey, "October Baby" follows 19-year-old Hannah who is in search of her birth mother.
Along Hannah's search, the college freshman is shocked to learn that she is the adopted survivor of an attempted abortion.
"October Baby" was the first film by directors the Erwin Brothers, who also served as producers. The top contemporary Christian artists and brothers are well known for award-winning music videos and have made their break into feature films with "October Baby."
"To take on such a weighty issue can be risky and probably wouldn't have been our first choose most most the time as a filmmaker you don't go find the story, it finds you," explained co-director Andrew Erwin to The Christian Post in an email.
"That was the case with our movie," added Erwin, who worked on the film alongside his brother Jon.
"October Baby" was inspired by the real-life story of abortion survivor Gianna Jessen, now a pro-life advocate, songwriter, and national speaker.
"We heard a girl named Gianna Jessen speak who is an abortion survivor with cerebral palsy [due to her premature birth from the attempted abortion] and we were so arrested by her testimony that we had to do something with the information we had learned," continued Erwin.
The Erwin brothers embraced the opportunity to prove that "October Baby" was marketable as well as the chance to save lives with the pro-life message.
The movie was distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films and Provident Films, which is well known for its association with such hit faith movies as "Courageous" and "Fireproof."
To learn more about the film, visit OctoberBabyMovie.net.