PARIS OSV News – The hit French film “Sacré Coeur” (“Sacred Heart”) is set to reach American audiences next spring, with a U.S. release planned for June 12, the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. The date may even move earlier to help prepare for the U.S. bishops’ planned consecration of the nation to the Sacred Heart, also set to take place on the solemnity, according to distributor SAJE.
Nearly two months after its release, “Sacré Coeur” – which tells the story of Christ’s apparitions to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in 17th-century France – continues to impress with its sustained, remarkable success.
Directed by Steven and Sabrina Gunnell, the film is frequently being added back to theater lineups after sold-out screenings that left viewers waiting outside.
For Hubert de Torcy, founder and director of SAJE, the only French distributor specializing in Christian-themed films, the film’s success is “unprecedented,” particularly for a “docufiction.”
“We will easily reach 500,000 admissions by early December, and we could reach 600,000 by the end of the year,” he told OSV News.
For France, these are substantial numbers. “We are known for our ability to mobilize a niche market … But with ‘Sacré Coeur,’ the success goes far beyond practicing Catholics. It is the first film distributed by SAJE to reach such a level,” Torcy said.
Torcy insists this “major phenomenon” is not the result of a “media stunt” but the sign of a genuine “groundswell.” “Most of the success comes from the film itself,” he said. “It has a concrete impact on people’s lives … People are very personally touched. They talk about it to their friends and family … who, in turn, are touched.”
“I receive – now every day – testimonials from people who have converted thanks to this film,” he continued. Many messages come from the rector of the Sanctuary of Paray-le-Monial, where the apparitions took place.
“The chaplains are receiving about 10 people a day who come to see them because they have seen the film,” Torcy told OSV News. “They ask if they can go to confession, something they have not done in 30 or 40 years.”
According to Torcy, “The biggest difficulty in France in recent years has been the self-censorship of Catholics themselves,” pointing to misunderstandings about secularism
Some, he noted, mistakenly interpret secularism as banning religious expression outside private life.
He recalled that “in Marseille, the screening of the film in a municipal cinema was canceled … due to its allegedly ‘confessional’ nature,” until a court overturned the decision three days later, affirming that showing a religious film does not violate secularism “as long as it does not express the municipality’s recognition of a religion or preference for that religion.”
“There must certainly be a separation between the temporal and the spiritual,” Torcy added. “But neutrality is not censorship or silence.”
He said refusals to display film posters prompted messages of support from atheists and Muslims, as well as Christians.
Beyond France, “Sacré-Coeur” has opened in Belgium, Switzerland and several African countries. December releases are planned in Lebanon and French-speaking Canada, with Spain, Germany, Poland, and other European countries to follow in early 2026, followed by Latin America and the United States.
“Perhaps it will be possible to bring it forward … to prepare for the consecration of the United States to the Sacred Heart,” Torcy said.
He hopes that the popularity of the film will bring a universal message worldwide that men need God in all corners of the globe.
“When I founded SAJE in 2012, I made a bet that faith would make a comeback in France,” he said. “If we are convinced that man was created by God and for God … then we can bet that this thirst for God exists in the heart of every man, and is not reserved for Christians. It is universal.”
Caroline de Sury writes for OSV news from Paris.
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