Hollywood Actor Reveals How Atheists Reportedly Tried to Thwart Reviews of His Pro-Christmas Film — but He Has an Unexpected Message

Actor Kirk Cameron is accusing atheist activists of mobilizing fellow nonbelievers to post negative reviews of his new film "Saving Christmas" — an act that he said plunged the movie's favorability score on Rotten Tomatoes from 94 percent to where it currently stands around 33 percent.

Cameron told TheBlaze Wednesday that it all began when he recently took to his Facebook page to encourage the film's fans to consider posting favorable reviews of "Saving Christmas."

"Help me storm the gates of Rotten Tomatoes! All of you who love Saving Christmas - go rate it at Rotten Tomatoes right now and send the message to all the critics that WE decide what movies we want our families to see!" Cameron wrote last week on his Facebook page.

He continued, "If 2,000 of you (out of almost 2 million on this page) take a minute to rate Saving Christmas, it will give the film a huge boost and more will see it as a result!"

Facebook/Kirk Cameron

At the time, he said the favorability score was hovering around 50 percent, with the film's director, Darren Doane also telling TheBlaze that he believes that even the initial number had been impacted by those intentionally trolling Rotten Tomatoes in an effort to harm the movie's score.

It didn't take long for fans to respond to Cameron's message, upping that mid-range proportion to 94 percent — an extremely strong measure.

But Cameron and Doane claim that atheist activists quickly took to social media, where they encouraged fellow nonbelievers to post negative reviews in an effort to bring the score back down.

"They were giving actual plot points," Cameron said. "They gave them plot points on the website for them to use in their reviews saying why it was so bad."

Cameron drew a distinction between his original message asking for supporters to voice their approval for the film from activists' purportedly attempt to lower the score simply for the mere sake of it.

Doane shared screen shots from the Atheism Reddit page, where these conversations were reportedly going on:

Atheism Reddit

But despite the current Rotten Tomatoes score standing at 33 percent, Doane told TheBlaze that the team isn't upset about the purported atheist takedown of the film's favorability rating.

"We have a very high score at Fandango and we've never driven anyone over there," he noted. "We're not crying about [the Rotten Tomatoes scenario]. We actually think it's amazing, because it continues to give us so much press about the film."

In fact, both Cameron and Doane said that atheists' actions have not only kept the movie in the headlines, but have also helped deliver a strong showing at the box office.

"We could possibly have our best weekend ever on our third weekend," Doane said, noting that this dynamic is extremely rare in Hollywood, where most movies lose momentum as time forges on. "The atheists are getting boring and predicable. They have no game, no swagger no narrative."

As for the critics' score — which cumulatively stands at an 8 percent favorability rating — Cameron believes that they missed the mark on what he's trying to accomplish stylistically through "Saving Christmas."

"It amazes me that the critics can't discern what it is that I'm actually doing so strategically here. what my audience loves to do at Christmas time is the same thing I like to do at Christmas time," he said. "We love to go to church and go see a glorious Christmas pageant … and that Christmas pageant always has a few things that we look forward to every time."

The "Saving Christmas" movie poster (Provident Films/Kirk Cameron)

From a nativity reenactment featuring Mary, Joseph and Jesus to a discussion about the true meaning of Christmas, Cameron said that he intentionally folded in many of the elements present in traditional Christmas pageants.

"That's exactly what I made for my audience. I made a Christmas pageant on steroids and I put it right in the public theater at a time when Christmas pageants are not allowed in public schools," he said. "And the atheists promoted it for us. And how do they not see what I was doing?"

Cameron believes atheists' responses show that "Saving Christmas" got them "pretty riled up."

The actor-turned-director said that he's an indie filmmaker who is taking risks and testing new waters surrounding how to produce and distribute films that appeal to faith and family audiences.

Critics, he said, simply missed the mark.

Doane also noted that "Saving Christmas" has been up against comedian Jon Stewart's "Rosewater," a film that is showing, like "Saving Christmas," on around 400 screens. But despite Stewart's name, platform and star power, he said his holiday film is about to overtake "Rosewater" at the box office.

Cameron said that he will soon turn his attention to his next film, "Kill the Dragon, Get the Girl," a movie that Doane believes could help build "an action adventure franchise."