Angel Studios is a Utah-based company that combines a focus on under-served audiences with crowdfunding and digital marketing innovation to deliver indie hits. The company is quickly scaling its international operations ahead of a planned IPO. Co-founder and Chief Content Officer Jeffrey Harmon recently announced a new biblically inspired British series, "Testament", published by Angel together with its British partner Kova.<\/p>\n
Directed by Paul Syrstad, "Testament" is a modern adaptation of apostle history set in London. It is the latest publication of Angel Studios, which follows the recently announced contract with Kova, including "King of Kings", an animated film about the life of Jesus Christ, and "Bonhoeffer", a biopic about the German Lutheran pastor and anti-Nazi dissident Dietrich Bonhoeffer. At the beginning of this year, Angel presented similar output deals with distributors in Europe, Latin America, and Asia.<\/p>\n
Most of Angel’s business is still in the USA, but hits like "Sound of Freedom" and "King of Kings" have earned over $6 million in international sales, including $1.5 million in Brazil. On June 16, Angel Studios will receive the first "Breakout Distributor of the Year" award at the CineEurope industry conference, honoring the "exponential effects of the company on the theater industry through its unshakeable authenticity and produce content that resonates with its audience".<\/p>\n
According to Harmon, "there’s a worldwide beat" with the audience based on faith. "There’s like an allergic reaction to faith in Hollywood, and that shouldn’t be," he says. "Look at ‘King of Kings’, which has $67 million at the box office so far. Look at ‘House of David’, which was number one on Amazon Prime. The faith market is a big, large market, and that’s why we are a troubleshooting studio."<\/p>\n
Harmon, along with his brothers Neal, Daniel, and Jordan Harmon, and cousin Benton Crane, started Angel Studios in 2023 as a "family-friendly" alternative to mainstream distributors. The company’s indie innovations include the Angel-Guild program, in which members pay a monthly fee for access to the studio’s publications and a vote on the greenlighting of future films and TV series, as well as fishing financing, a regulated crowdfunding platform for approved projects.<\/p>\n
Angel Studios plans to release eight films in theaters this year, including "The Last Rodeo" and "Maker". The company’s upcoming slate also includes "Zero AD", a retelling of the biblical story of Mary and Joseph, and "Sketch", a warm favorite at the Toronto Film Festival last year. Angel’s Christmas Day release, "The Case for the Stranger", is the story of a pediatric surgeon and her daughter set against the backdrop of the Syrian civil war.<\/p>\n
According to Harmon, Angel changes its international sales strategy according to local market requirements and notes "big differences" in the demography of the audience worldwide compared to the United States. "Europe is generally a secular market, for example, against Brazil, which is much more geared towards faith," he says. The company’s international partners include a mix of faith-based and secular distributors.<\/p>\n
For Angel Studios, it’s primarily about performance. "In markets where it makes sense to have a faith-based distributor, that’s great, but in markets where it’s better to have a different kind of distributor, we will do that," says Harmon. The same focus is brought to Angel’s small screen slate, which includes the post-apocalyptic drama "Homestead" and the fantasy series "The Wayfinder".<\/p>\n
Harmon cannot be given to religious roots that Angel Studios "focus 100 percent" on growth, as it is preparing to go public. Last year, the company announced plans for an IPO via Southport Acquisition Corp, a blank-check SPAC, worth $1.6 billion. There is still no date for the IPO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction to Angel Studios Angel Studios is a Utah-based company that combines a focus on under-served audiences with crowdfunding and digital marketing innovation to deliver indie hits. The company is quickly scaling its international operations ahead of a planned IPO. Co-founder and Chief Content Officer Jeffrey Harmon recently announced a new biblically inspired British series,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-film-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12696,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12694\/revisions\/12696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}