Film adaptation of TV success comes amid Brazil’s fast-growing evangelical movement – and it’s already sold five times as many pre-sale tickets as Star Wars

The shepherdess’s hand lingers on the glistening skin of her décolletage, as Moses watches, entranced, from a nearby haystack.



The strings of a plaintive love song start to swell. “Tired of waiting …” a voice sings in Portuguese, in this distinctively Brazilian take on the Book of Exodus.



With over three million tickets sold before its first screening – five times as many pre-sales for Star Wars: The Force Awakens – a new film of The Ten Commandments opened on Thursday on a third of Brazil’s cinema screens.

It looks set to be one of the biggest box office hits in the country’s history.



Almost the entire film is edited from the 176 episodes of the first part of a soap opera of the same name, broadcast on the Record TV network between March and November of last year.



The Ten Commandments was one of the biggest TV success stories in recent years, doubling its ratings during its run and trouncing the offerings of its major rival, Globo, Brazil’s biggest TV network.



At the film’s premiere in Rio de Janeiro, director Alexandre Avancini attributed its phenomenal success to its blend of drama, comedy and romance.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Moses unconscious in bed in a still from The Ten Commandments. Photograph: PR

“We managed to create something that brings the whole Brazilian family together,” he said. “It’s something my mother watches with my daughter.”



Brazil’s evangelicals become a political force to be reckoned with Read more

But the key to the audience figures was the high number of viewers from Brazil’s growing evangelical movement. Evangelical Christianity is the fastest growing religion in the country, with around 25% of Brazilians now classify themselves as evangelicals – a number than has doubled in the past 20 years.



The Record TV network belongs to Edir Macedo, founder of the evangelical Church of the Universal Kingdom of God (IURD), and one of the wealthiest men in Brazil, with a net worth of US$1.1bn, according to Forbes magazine. The IURD also has close links to the socially conservative political party, the Partido Republicano Brasileiro (PRB).



Throughout the show’s run, the IURD’s pastors promoted The Ten Commandments heavily, as did Record’s own presenters, who repeatedly emphasise the network’s “family values”.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘We managed to create something that brings the whole Brazilian family together.’ Photograph: Michel Angelo/PR

Leaders of other evangelical sects were divided over whether to encourage their congregations to watch.

Many resent both Globo’s dominance and its racier dramas. But they also fear the increasing media and political power of the IURD.

Over the course of The Ten Commandments, Silas Malafaia, the multi-millionaire head of the Victory in Christ Church, celebrated the fact that Record was beating Globo in the ratings war, but also accused Macedo of exploiting the bible for financial gain.



TV remains a powerful force in Brazil. The average Brazilian watched TV for almost six hours every day in 2014, the equivalent of three months of the year, according to a recent survey by the Brazilian Institute for Public Opinion and Statistics, Ibope. Despite the success of The Ten Commandments, Globo still dominates the market, with an average viewership of 4.2 million per minute, compared with 1.4 million for Record.



Others attributed the show’s success to political reasons. Eugênio Bucci, a columnist from the conservative newspaper O Estado de São Paulo argued that its sky-high ratings reflected Brazilian viewers desire to escape from the depressing reality of the country’s politics.



Avancini largely agreed. “We have been experiencing a crisis for the past 10 to 15 years and Brazilians need hope,” he said.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Ten Commandments was one of the biggest TV success stories in recent years. Photograph: PR

But there were some signs that the early ticket sales may have been more to do with skilful marketing rather than soaring demand.



According to a report on the UOL website on 28 January, the cinema closest to the IURD’s main church, the Temple of Soloman, in São Paulo, was largely empty, despite the fact all tickets were supposedly sold out.



Thomas Navaz, the executive director of Record in Rio de Janeiro, said that he thought Record’s competitors were merely attempting to undermine the channel’s achievements.



“The power of the media is concentrated in just a few groups, and they don’t accept it when there is a challenge to their power,” he said.



The Ten Commandments is currently being sold overseas, and Navaz predicted it would become the most sold soap opera in global television history.