Disney says the film is not overtly religious

The movie, called The Greatest Game Ever Played, is based on sportsman Francis Ouimet's improbable win in the 1913 US Open golf championships.

"Its themes are about family, about not giving up on your dreams, courage," said Dennis Rice, head of publicity at the Walt Disney Studios.

Similar marketing techniques have been used recently by other movie studios.

Faith-based support

He said the film's themes were concerned with "secular virtues" but he said they also could "potentially be Christian virtues".

Films - not necessarily with a religious theme - which have been marketed in this way have included the recent father-son story The Thing About My Folks and even the dark drama The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

Twentieth Century Fox has launched a website to market family-friendly videos directly to Christian groups.

The moves follow lessons learned since the release of Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ, which had unprecedented marketing and publicity throughout churches.

Film-makers behind smaller movies say that support from faith-based communities encourages studios to make similar films.

"If the powers that be see there is a bigger market out there, it will make it easier for the next time around," said Paul Reiser, who wrote and co-stars in the family comedy The Things About My Folks.

Lessons in marketing were learned with The Passion Of The Christ

To promote that movie, members of churches, synagogues and Jewish community centres were invited to more than 30 screenings in cities including Minneapolis, Cleveland and Chicago.

Disney is also aiming for support from Christian audiences for its forthcoming big-budget The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, adapted from a CS Lewis novel.

The studio has hired Motive Entertainment, the same group which marketed The Passion of The Christ to churches, to sell "Narnia" to Christian audiences.