Storming to $370m at the North American box office and $611m worldwide back in 2004, The Passion Of The Christ might never be surpassed at the summit of faith-based cinema. After Mel Gibson’s interpretation of the final hours of Jesus Christ came out, independent films about spirituality, faith and religion went mostly quiet for a decade, notwithstanding releases from the major studios such as The Nativity Story through New Line in 2006 and Courageous through TriStar Pictures in 2011.
Then, in 2014, Freestyle Releasing and Pure Flix — which rebranded as Pinnacle Peak Pictures in 2021 after Sony’s Affirm Films acquired the Pure Flix brand and streaming service the year before — distributed God’s Not Dead. The $60m North American gross spawned a franchise that has generated more than $100m worldwide and endures to this day.
Since then, faith- and values-based cinema has been on the comeback trail. The term is a nebulous catch-all encompassing overtly religious and faith stories that, when marketing executives want to appeal to wider audiences, bleeds into a broader movement described as amplifying inspirational and positive narratives.
In the intervening years, a healthy crop of titles, including Summit Entertainment’s The Shack, I Can Only Imagine released through Roadside Attractions, and Jesus Revolution from Lionsgate partner Kingdom Story Company, a significant player in the space, have made waves at the box office.
Last year, Sound Of Freedom, a drama about a vigilante who rescues children from sex-trafficking rings that starred Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in The Passion Of The Christ, grossed $185m in North America and $250m worldwide. A huge hit, it shone a light on Angel Studios, which launched in 2013 and had early success with its acclaimed series The Chosen.
Fast-forward one year and the Angel Studios senior executive team has been ramping up theatrical operations, releasing films such as Cabrini and Sound Of Hope: The Story Of Possum Trot this year, and beefing up its industry profile at CinemaCon, Cannes and, most recently, Mipcom.
This week the company, which distributes in North America, handles territory sales, and operates a streaming platform, has been at AFM to discuss marketing strategy with partners in its nascent international output network spanning Europe, South America and Africa on the historical biopic Bonhoeffer (opening in the US on November 22) and bull-riding drama The Last Rodeo (May 2025), and engage with buyers in available territories.
Meanwhile, Pinnacle Peak Pictures, the market stalwart behind God’s Not Dead and films such as The Case For Christ, Man Of God and Lifemark, has been touting a roster led by new Biblical drama The Last Supper ahead of an Easter 2025 US launch.
“Our mission is to tell stories that amplify light,” says Jared Geesey, Angel Studios chief distribution officer. “That doesn’t mean they all have to be faith-based. Our first original series was actually Dry Bar Comedy, which is just stand-up comedy. Our mission of telling stories that amplify light is much broader than only faith-based content.”
After Dry Bar Comedy came The Chosen, a drama series about Christ. Geesey, who built the ChristianCinema.com transactional VoD platform in 2014, assembled a network of more than 100 distribution and licensing partners in 27 countries for The Chosen. He says views for the show reached 420 million directly through Angel Studios’ platform. Three episodes were released theatrically through Fathom Events and earned $34m.
Angel Studios is headed by brothers Neal, Jeffrey, Daniel and Jordan Harmon, and their cousin Benton Crane. Despite being headquartered in Utah, Geesey says it is not a Mormon venture, adding: “We are a diverse company with a shared mission that I think lots of people are looking for — values-based content that will impact and care for culture.”
The output network includes Paris Filmes in Brazil, A Contracorriente in Spain, Nos Lusomundo in Portugal, Santa Barbara Films in Colombia, Neema Media in Benelux, FilmOne in Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria, and Blitz in Croatia and former Yugoslavia. The goal is to grow the network and further partners will be announced in due course.
Angel investors
To determine which projects to board as distributor, Angel Studios uses its Angel Guild, a tastemaker community that has grown to around 400,000 members worldwide who can also invest, although that is not a prerequisite. To date it has invested $80m. “We hope to expand that model internationally,” says Geesey.
The firm also uses a pay-it-forward strategy on releases, which enables filmgoers to buy tickets for those who may not be able to afford them.
He cites this year’s The Global Faith And Entertainment Study, a report from consultancy HarrisX in collaboration with the Faith & Media Initiative that canvassed 10,000 entertainment consumers across 11 countries and found, among other things, that 73% of respondents described themselves as spiritual, religious or a person of faith.
“When I see that, and I see the overlap with our mission of stories that amplify light, there’s just a [misunderstanding] out there,” he says. “Faith content is mainstream content for global audiences. That’s a massive underserved audience and the idea that stories of faith are just for middle America is not true.”
Besides North America, Geesey says Sound Of Freedom performed well across Latin America (where it grossed around $40m), Australia and Spain, and even did “fairly well” in the UK on around $2.7m. The film has been linked to far-right QAnon conspiracy theories, but director Alejandro Monteverde strongly rejects this accusation, despite lead actor Caviezel repeating some of the QAnon claims.
Bonhoeffer writer-director Todd Komarnicki, who co-wrote Sully and The Professor And The Madman, does not think his film is faith-based and puts it in the broader category of inspirational stories. Jonas Dassler stars as German Lutheran pastor and Nazi critic Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was part of a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. “People want to be inspired and think about deep issues,” says Komarnicki. “Bonhoeffer has a lot in it that’s quite sad, but it also leaves people with a sense of hope and a way to look at life through a different lens.”
Komarnicki shot Bonhoeffer in Belgium and Ireland and wrapped in early 2023. The film was funded by former American Standard CEO Emmanuel Kampouris and his wife Camille, a former Muppeteer and board member of the online theological studios site Biblemesh. Komarnicki says she did not seek to exert influence on how he told the story.
Angel acquired Bonhoeffer in November 2023 with the endorsement of the Angel Guild. “The main thing I love about Angel is that they are committed to the theatrical model,” he says, adding, “They didn’t shy away from the intensity of this Nazi-era story that has a lot of heartbreak in it.”
Pinnacle Peak is a champion of independent faith-based stories and also remains committed to theatrical. “We’re an old-school, classic, all‑in-one indie company,” says Ron Gell, vice president of international sales. Gell will be screening The Last Supper at the market, Mauro Borrelli’s drama about the tensions and intrigue leading up to the Biblical event. Mark Freiburger’s Between Borders is another major sales push and tells the true story of an Armenian family forced to flee their home during the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Pinnacle Peak will also be screening the fifth instalment of its God’s Not Dead series at AFM, God’s Not Dead: In God We Trust, which opened in the US in September and has earned close to $4m. Forty-Seven Days With Jesus and Disciples In The Moonlight are also on the roster.
“This faith-based business is a patchwork quilt,” says Gell. “Eastern European Christians respond differently to a particular story than Asian Christians do, who respond differently to Latin American Christians, who respond differently to American Christians.”
One recent highlight has been The Blind, which Gell licensed to Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions last year and grossed $17m in North America.
“Latin America is a super-strong market for us, as are South Korea and Australia and New Zealand,” he says. Pinnacle Peak has worked with California Filmes in Latin America, Crossroads in Australia and various distributors in South Korea.
“When I landed in Cannes 2014 with God’s Not Dead, there had been no faith-based movies released theatrically in international markets since The Passion Of The Christ,” says Gell. “We planted a flag and set out to create a faith-based business, and we’re still cooking.”
Top 10 independent faith-based films 2019 to present
| Title | Distributor | Release date | Final box office | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Sound Of Freedom |
Angel Studios |
July 4, 2023 |
$184.2m |
|
2 |
Jesus Revolution |
Lionsgate |
February 24, 2023 |
$52.1m |
|
3 |
Unsung Hero |
Lionsgate |
April 26, 2024 |
$20.3m |
|
4 |
Cabrini |
Angel Studios |
March 8, 2024 |
$19.5m |
|
5 |
His Only Son |
Angel Studios |
March 31, 2023 |
$12.4m |
|
6 |
Sound Of Hope: The Story Of Possum Trot |
Angel Studios |
July 4, 2024 |
$11.6m |
|
7 |
After Death |
Angel Studios |
October 27, 2023 |
$11.5m |
|
8 |
I Still Believe |
Lionsgate |
March 13, 2020 |
$10.4m |
|
9 |
Sight |
Angel Studios |
May 24, 2024 |
$7.2m |
|
10 |
Run The Race |
Roadside Attractions |
February 22, 2019 |
$6.4m |
Source: Comscore
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