, a movie based on the award-winning novel by Francine Rivers (Tyndale House), debuted at No. 29 over the weekend, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. The film, which received mixed reviews, grossed $245,000 after opening on 429 screens.

Rated PG-13 for thematic elements and some intense sequences of violence, the evangelistic thriller about a young girl who seeks forgiveness through an ancient Welsh ritual involving a man known as “the Sin Eater” was the second release this year from FoxFaith, Twentieth Century Fox's Christian-themed division.

During a screening of The Last Sin Eater at CBA Advance, last month, more than 450 conventioneers applauded loudly and gave the movie a standing ovation after its showing.

But the film drew some negative newspaper reviews. The Baltimore Sun said “Preachy 'Sin Eater' is hard to swallow,” noting that “you can feel the filmmaker forcing the round peg of evangelism into the square hole of creative excellence.” Scripps Howard News Service, though, touted the movie as “a reasonably well-made thriller for its Christian target audience.”

The Last Sin Eater, which won the 1999 Gold Medallion Book Award for fiction presented by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, didn't do as well on its opening weekend as FoxFaith's previous release. Last month, Thr3e, based on Ted Dekker's novel, which had a budget of $2.4 million like The Last Sin Eater, made $700,000 in its opening weekend after debuting on 458 screens.

Based on the novel by Jim Stovall (RiverOak/Cook Communications Ministries), The Ultimate Gift, which is scheduled to come out March 9, is the next FoxFaith release, with six more movies set to hit theaters in 2007.