Evan Almighty: Summer's First Big-Budget Bomb?

Not great news for Wisconsin hedge fund Stark Investments, who, through Relativity Media, bought into Universal's Evan Almighty, the modern-age Noah's Ark tale starring Steve Carell.

The movie opened at $32.1 million this weekend (taking the top slot), which wouldn't be that bad if the comedy didn't cost $250 million to produce and market, according to the LA Times, possibly making it the first big-budget bomb of the summer.

The Wall Street Journal chalks up the soft opening, in part, to audiences tiring of sequels.

But it's hard to deny that Uni's marketing of this movie, a sequel to 2003's hit Bruce Almighty (which starred Jim Carrey, cost $84 million to produce, opened at $68 million and went on to earn $242 million domestically), wasn't part of the problem.

As the Los Angeles Times points out, Evan was more of a spinoff than a sequel and the studio had the challenge of trying to reposition it as tamer than the first while selling it "to two disparate audiences that normally do not watch the same movies: Christians who prefer family-friendly films, and fans of raunchy comedies such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which was Carell's break-out hit."

The studio is still hoping that the movie will find its legs from good word-of-mouth from the faith-based audience (having hired Grace Hill Media to help market), but movies aren't lasting long in theaters this crowded summer.

However, the bigger question that Hollywood is grappling with today is if expensive, overtly Christian movies can consistently prove themselves profitable.