By GARY GENTILE, AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES - The home-video division of Twentieth Century Fox said Tuesday it will acquire as many as a dozen family friendly movies a year and market them under the FoxFaith banner.

"We saw the opportunity to fill the needs of an underserved marketplace," said Steve Feldstein, senior vice president of marketing at Fox Home Video.

About half of the films will be distributed theatrically through a third-party company under a deal with two large theater chains, AMC Theatres and Carmike Cinemas. The rest will go directly to DVD.

FoxFaith could be successful if it concentrates on the home-video market rather than theatrical releases, which cost more to market and carry more risk, media analyst Harold Vogel said.

The family friendly strategy was originally launched to sell a broad array of DVDs to retailers, including titles such as "Hello Dolly" and "My Friend Flicka" as well as "Love Comes Softly," a film based on the books of popular Christian author Janette Oke.

Fox passed on the chance to distribute Mel Gibson ‘s "The Passion of the Christ" theatrically. But the studio did distribute the DVD after the film grossed more than $600 million worldwide at the box office.

Several studios have hired specialized firms to market their films directly to churches.

The first theatrical release to be marketed by the unit will be "Love‘s Abiding Joy," based on the fourth installment in the Janette Oke book series. FoxFaith will also be releasing "Color of the Cross," a film that portrays Christ as a black man.

On the Net:

http://www.foxfaithmovies.com