Facing the Giants

2006 film by Alex Kendrick

The film was released to DVD in early 2007 and made its television debut on September 21, 2008, on Trinity Broadcasting Network.

The film received mostly negative reviews from mainstream critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, 16% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 25 reviews, with an average rating of 4.30/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "The tropes of both football and evangelical movies are gracelessly on parade in this banal, insipid drama." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 38 out of 100 based on reviews from 4 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Heather Boerner of Common Sense Media rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, categorizing it as "a heartwarming if overly religious story of faith" and saying its message would "speak to born again men and their families, but, again, not their less religious neighbors." Joel Rosenblatt of The Austin Chronicle, on the other hand, rated it 1 out of 5 stars, writing "Its feel good storyline, shopworn message, and bottomless sermonizing would have played better in Sunday school than on the big screen, which is let's face it Babylon's turf."

In its first weekend, the film opened on 441 screens nationwide in the United States. Despite such a small number of theaters, the film opened in twelfth place with $1,343,537. The film ultimately was shown in over 1,000 theaters and grossed a total of $10,243,159. The Drudge Report picked up the story on June 8, 2006, which sparked a controversy alleging that the film was being given a "PG" rating solely because of its religious theme. According to the film's producers, they were told the motion picture received a PG rating because of its strong religious themes and because it elevated one religion over another. The MPAA later explained that Facing the Giants contains football violence and also deals with the mature topics of infertility and depression. The Kendrick brothers expected the PG rating because of the movie's mature themes and did not appeal the board's rating.