While there were many box office hits to celebrate in 2023, none were a bigger surprise than “Sound of Freedom,” one of the highest grossing independent releases in box office history and a film that earned its distributor, Angel Studios, a spot at CinemaCon 2024.
On Wednesday morning, Angel Studios’ distribution team led by EVP Brandon Purdie thanked movie theater owners for helping turn Alejandro Monteverde’s drama about the fight against child trafficking into a $250 million box office hit.
“We are eternally grateful to our theatrical partners who helped champion our studio and enabled us to bring films that amplify light into movie theaters,” Purdie said. “There is no better place than CinemaCon to celebrate and give credit to our exhibition partners.”
Angel Studios has already returned to theaters this year with Monteverde’s follow-up film “Cabrini,” which was released in theaters as part of a partnership with Fathom Events.
The studio will release four additional films in 2024, timing all of its releases around holiday weekends. That starts on Memorial Day weekend with “Sight,” an inspirational drama starring Terry Chen as Dr. Ming Wang, an eye surgeon who looks for a way to restore the eyesight of an orphan who was blinded by an acid attack.
On July 4, the studio will release “Possum Trot,” a film with Letitia Wright as executive producer that provides another angle of the child trafficking issues that “Sound of Freedom” explored with a drama about a church community in East Texas who adopts 77 children from their local foster care system.
The studio’s Thanksgiving release is “Bonhoeffer,” a true story drama about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian who witnessed the rise of the Nazis and became involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler. Angel will close out the year with its first theatrically released action thriller “Homestead,” a post-apocalyptic tale starring Neal McDonough.
The studio will also release its first animated film, “David,” on Thanksgiving 2025. The film is a musical retelling of the famous biblical tale of David vs. Goliath, and it will be released on Nov. 21, 2025, five days before the release of Disney’s sequel to “Zootopia.”
Angel Studios exploded onto the scene not only because of “Sound of Freedom,” but because of the “pay it forward” program it used to encourage early viewers of the film to buy tickets for others to see it. More than 2 million tickets were sold through the program, and Angel plans to develop more ticketing initiatives through its partnership with Atom Tickets and offer them directly to members of the Angel Guild, a community where Angel’s most loyal viewers can provide their input on which potential project should be greenlit next.