Jon Erwin

Jon Erwin has been an Evangelical Christian-based filmmaker since 2006 when he made (as director/producer/cinematographer/editor with brother Andrew) the documentary feature, The Cross and the Towers (2006). Erwin’s narrative feature debut as writer-director-producer was the anti-abortion drama, October Baby (2011), with Rachel Hendrix and Jasmine Guy, earning $5.3 million on a $1 million budget, followed by Fully Alive (2012), and then the Sony-released comedy, Moms’ Night Out (2014), with Sarah Drew, Sean Astin, Patricia Heaton, and Trace Adkins, which doubled its $5 million budget with a $10.5 million box office.

Erwin’s first commercial failure was the Christian football-themed Woodlawn (2015), starring Sean Astin, Jon Voight, and C. Thomas Howell earned a poor $14.4 million gross. Jon Erwin’s second documentary (with Andrew) as director-producer was the little-seen Steve McQueen: American Icon (2017), followed by one of the Erwin Brothers’ most successful features, the Christian-themed biopic I Can Only Imagine (2018), with J. Michael Finley, Adkins, Cloris Leachman, and Dennis Quaid, returning over ten times the $7 million cost with $86 million box office.

Director-writer-producer Erwin didn’t have the same commercial returns with I Still Believe (2020), with KJ Apa, Britt Robertson, Shania Twain, and Gary Sinise, which returned only $16.4 million in a Lionsgate release. Erwin co-directed (with Andrew) and wrote the documentary, The Jesus Music (2021), featuring Christian musicians including Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, and Michael Tait, which returned a small $1 million box office, and then resumed his narrative projects with American Underdog (2021), a movie dramatizing Los Angeles Rams quarterback, Kurt Warner, starring Zachary Levi, Anna Paquin, and Dennis Quaid, and returning a disappointing $26.5 million box office.

Erwin’s next Christian drama (with co-director Brent McCorkle) was Jesus Revolution (2023), with Joel Courtney, Jonathan Roumie, and Kelsey Grammer, followed by Ordinary Angels (2023), starring Hilary Swank and Alan Richson, for which Erwin was co-writer and co-producer.