Let me ask you something that might sting just a little.
How many times have you sat through a movie preview, watched something raunchy or violent flash across the screen, and muttered to the person next to you, “This is why I don’t go to the movies anymore”? How many times have you scrolled through a streaming service, clicking past title after title, shaking your head at what passes for entertainment these days?
If you’re a person of faith, especially if you have kids in the house, this probably happens more than you’d like to admit.
Now here’s the question I really want to ask: What did you do about it?
Because a movie was just made for you. For your family. For your grandmother who loves to laugh. For your kids who you want to take to the theater without having to cover their eyes. It didn’t happen by accident, it happened because someone decided to put their convictions on the line and make something that reflects the values we say matter to us.
And right now, it’s in theaters.
So the question is – are you going?
The Spectrum of Faith-and-Family Films
Before we get to the movie itself, let’s talk about something important: what “faith-and-family” actually means, because it’s a much bigger tent than most people realize.
On one end of the spectrum, you have explicitly biblical films. The Passion of the Christ. The Chosen. I Can Only Imagine. Jesus Revolution. King of Kings. These are chapter-and-verse stories — scripture brought to life on screen, direct and unapologetic about their message.
On the other end, you have films that aren’t quoting scripture but are absolutely shaped by faith. Stories about marriage, family, sacrifice, integrity, and what it looks like to actually live out the values we profess, in a house, with kids, in the middle of ordinary, messy, hilarious real life. Biblical principles communicated through story, not sermon.
Both are faith-and-family content. Both matter. And both need our support.
The Breadwinner — comedian Nate Bargatze’s debut film, now in theaters — lives in that second category. It’s not a biblical epic. It doesn’t have an altar call. But it is built on the kind of values that faith communities have been begging Hollywood to reflect: commitment to family, self-sacrifice, a husband and wife who are genuinely for each other, and content so clean you can bring literally everyone in your family without a moment of awkwardness.
Who Is Nate Bargatze, and Why Does It Matter?
If you’ve somehow missed Nate Bargatze up to this point, here’s what you need to know. He’s a Nashville-born, Southern-raised Christian comedian who has spent over twenty years building one of the most remarkable careers in stand-up comedy, all without ever crossing a line your mom would be uncomfortable with. No crude jokes. No profanity. No shock value. Just genuinely funny storytelling about family life, marriage, and the everyday absurdity of being human.
His recent “Big Dumb Eyes” World Tour sold over two million tickets — more than Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Tour. He hosted the Primetime Emmy Awards. He has been the highest-grossing stand-up comedian in the country. And he did all of it clean.
He’s been asked about this over and over again throughout his career, and his answers are always the same. His faith shaped who he is. And he has always believed that the best room is one where everyone, grandma, the teenagers, the little kids — can all laugh together without anyone being embarrassed.
“I just want to make something that all of them can be in the room together,” he’s said. He considers clean, family-centered comedy his calling, not just a career choice, but something God put on his heart.
Now he’s brought that calling to the big screen. And he didn’t do it alone, The Breadwinner was co-produced by Wonder Project, a faith-based production company that partnered with Sony Pictures because they believed in exactly what this film represents. This movie was built from the ground up with faith-and-family values at the center.
What The Breadwinner Is About
The premise is simple and instantly relatable. Nate plays Nate Wilcox, a top-performing car salesman married to Katie (played by Mandy Moore), who runs their household and raises their three daughters with what can only be described as superhuman competence.
Then Katie lands a deal on Shark Tank for her household invention. The catch? She has to travel overseas for two weeks to get production rolling. That means Nate — the breadwinner — is suddenly home alone with three daughters and absolutely no idea what he’s doing.
What follows is the kind of comedic chaos that feels completely real because it is real. Anyone who has ever watched their spouse handle everything and thought “I could do that”, only to discover forty-five minutes later that they absolutely cannot — will recognize themselves in this movie. Underneath all the laughs is a story about what it means to truly see and honor the people we love, to step up when it’s hard, and to realize that keeping a family together takes more grace than we usually give it credit for.
It’s rated PG. It runs 99 minutes. And yes, there’s a horse.
Here’s the Part Where We Have to Be Honest With Ourselves
Faith communities — and I say this with love, because I am one of you, have a habit of doing something that genuinely baffles Hollywood.
We complain about the content. Loudly. Passionately. We share articles about the moral decline of entertainment. We post on social media about how Hollywood has forgotten families. And then, when a movie comes along that gives us exactly what we’ve been asking for, we… wait for it to come to streaming.
We say we’ll catch it on Netflix.
We tell ourselves we’ll take the family “when things slow down.”
And then we wonder why there aren’t more movies like this being made.
Here’s the hard truth: Hollywood is not a values system. It’s a business. And businesses follow the money. When faith-and-family films succeed at the box office, whether they’re The Passion of the Christ or a PG comedy about a dad who can’t figure out laundry, studios greenlight more of them. When those same films under perform in theaters, the message Hollywood hears is clear: there’s no market for this.
The opening weekend box office is the vote that counts. Not the streaming numbers six months later. Not your positive review on social media. Ticket sales are what determine whether the next faith-and-family filmmaker gets a green light — or whether Hollywood goes back to making what it knows will sell.
What You Can Do Right Now
The Breadwinner is still in theaters. Here’s how you can make a difference:
Go this week. Every ticket still in the theatrical run matters. Take the kids, bring the grandparents, call your small group, text your neighbors. Make it a thing.
Talk about it. Share it from your church social media. Mention it in your newsletter. Tell people there is a genuinely funny, genuinely clean family movie in theaters right now — and that showing up is a statement.
Bring people who don’t usually go to “faith” movies. This isn’t a sermon on screen. It’s a hilarious, warm story about family — made by people of faith, for everyone. That’s actually the most powerful kind of outreach.
Think bigger. Every time you buy a ticket to a faith-and-family film — whether it’s a biblical epic or a PG comedy — you are casting a vote for the kind of content you want to exist. Use that vote.
The Bigger Picture
The faith-and-family film space is growing and it is growing because audiences have shown up. The Chosen exists because people showed up. I Can Only Imagine shocked Hollywood because people showed up. Every film that breaks through changes what gets green-lit next.
The Breadwinner is the current opportunity. It’s funny, it’s clean, it’s in theaters right now, and it was made by a man whose faith quietly shapes everything he does — backed by Wonder Project, a production company that exists specifically to bring more content like this into the world.
The least we can do is show up.
Go see it. Take your people. Laugh together. And let Hollywood know that faith-and-family audiences are real, we are paying attention, and we vote with our dollars.
Because if we don’t show up, they’ll stop making them. And then we’ll be right back to complaining about our streaming queues — with nobody to blame but ourselves.
The Breadwinner is rated PG and is now playing in theaters nationwide. Running time: 99 minutes. Co-produced by Wonder Project in partnership with Sony Pictures.
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