(Image courtesy of Angel Studios) As CinemaCon, the annual confab for movie theater owners, wraps today in Las Vegas, one film distributor has taken a decidedly different approach to survive and thrive amid the struggling theatrical exhibition business. Angel Studios, headquartered in Provo, Utah, made a splash with its second-ever film, 2023’s Sound of Freedom, featuring Jim Cavaziel as a Homeland Security agent turned vigilante trying to stop child traffickers. The film grossed $184.1 million in the United States and $250.5 million worldwide, a sleeper hit that surprised many in mainstream Hollywood even as it became a political football over Caviezel’s QAnon support and questions about the person and organization that are the story’s real-life basis. But the film’s success, despite launching amidst the attention-sucking marketing monster known as Barbenheimer, was undeniable, especially for a smaller, brand-new distributor based far from Hollywood. Angel is hoping for similar success with its next release, arriving just ahead of Easter on April 11, the animated film The King of Kings. In the film, Charles Dickens recounts the Jesus story to his son. It features a notable voice cast including Kenneth Branagh, Oscar Isaac, Ben Kingsley, Pierce Brosnan, and Uma Thurman. To ensure families show up, Angel launched a “kids go free” promotion, giving away two youth tickets for every adult ticket purchased through the company’s ticket site (with the code “KIDSGOFREE”). Angel is also running a contest for ticket buyers to win a robust home-entertainment system and a trip to London and Israel. MORE FOR YOU Trump Imposes Tariffs On Uninhabited Heard And McDonald Islands—‘Remotest Places On Earth’ NYT Mini Today: Hints, Clues And Answers For Thursday, April 3 Elon’s Edsel: Tesla Cybertruck Is The Auto Industry’s Biggest Flop In Decades It’s the kind of unique approach that Angel can take because of an unusually integrated structure that starts with what it calls its Angel Guild, more than 1 million members who pay $12 or $20 a month for two free movie tickets, early access to Angel’s streamed films and series, discounts on merchandise, and, unusually, the right to weigh in on which films Angel actually distributes. “The Angel Guild is the heartbeat of everything Angel Studios does,” said Jared Geesey, Angel’s Chief Distribution Officer. "They vote on and approve every Angel film, and we won’t distribute it if it’s not approved by the guild. We’re inviting people to be an active participant. We want them there to be part of it, connecting with the artists in that voting process. They are much more than any focus group." That approach turns subscribers into ambassadors on behalf of the films they support, creating a valuable back-channel for promoting any film and "getting cheeks in seats," as the old entertainment saw puts it. To help ease the ticket-acquisition process, the company has built tech tying its operations into the ordering systems of most U.S. theaters. It also promotes its theatrical releases in and around its streaming operation, with on-screen QR codes that let subscribers quickly reserve tickets for an upcoming film. “We’re the only studio to sell movie tickets directly on 90 percent of movie theaters" said Geesey. 'That enables us to do some amazing things." CinemaCon, which famously features glitzy Hollywood studio presentations on their respective upcoming slates, attracts theater operators from the Big Three major chains down to Mom & Pop operations. What challenges all those theater operators is finding a broader array of programming than what’s currently coming from risk-averse, big-franchise-dependent Hollywood studios, said Brandon Purdie, Angel’s EVP, global head of theatrical distribution & brand development. To reach different audiences requires different kinds of films, like what Angel puts out “The films we release, audiences are craving,” Purdie said. In substantial part, that’s because the films are generally focused around a certain sensibility, what the company calls “Light.” Films that fit include the faith-based films that have carved out a sturdy audience niche the past couple of decades, but it’s more than that, Geesey says. “Our mission is stories that amplify light,” Geesey said. “We have a pledge in our app that ask that (Angel Guild members) are the gatekeepers of light.” The app promises “excellent entertainment” followed by a string of adjectives ("true," "honest," etc.) that wouldn’t be out of place in the Boy Scout oath. No surprise, perhaps, that Purdie was an Eagle Scout. “That definition is broad,” Geesey said. “Sometimes we get pigeon-holed as only being faith based. We’re not affiliated with any church or religion. but recognize that stories that amplify light are broad and really are for everyone.” The company plans seven releases this year, all at least 2,000 screens, which counts as a wide release. Credit the engagement with the Angel Guild for the company’s confidence to go wide routinely. “I think it creates a big opportunity for Angel Studios to have this big community who are aware from the get-go,” about an upcoming film, said Purdie, a 22-year veteran of film distribution. “It’s a huge advantage having a dedicated audience who shows up on opening weekend. It gives us the opportunity to go wider. There’s a lot of space for us to grow.” Not everything works as spectacularly at the box office as Sound of Freedom. The last seven releases have generated a combined $80 million in box office, an average of $11.4 million, led by biopic Cabrini ($20.5 million) and apocalyptic action-thriller Homestead ($20.8 million). The films typically feature familiar names – Neil McDonough, John Lithgow, David Morse, Greg Kinnear, Jared Harris, Phoebe Waller-Bridge – and modest budgets. Once films have had their theatrical run, they shift to Angel’s streaming site, which also is adding series and other shows on a weekly basis, said Geesey. Guild members get free access to the streaming site, and discounts on the merchandise store for every one of their films and other major projects. It’s the kind of integrated approach that long was the province of, most famously, Disney. But now even a smaller, focused company like Angele has a chance to find a reliable audience for a tightly focused library of entertainment. Without such an approach, it’s easy to imagine plenty of challenges for any media company relying on theatrical exhibition, which still hasn’t recovered from the pandemic and then two Hollywood strikes. For each of the five years before 2020, domestic box office grosses topped $11 billion. No year since has crested even $9 billion, according to BoxOfficeMojo. Worse, 2025’s just-concluded first quarter of $1.43 billion was down nearly 12% from the mediocre results of the same period in 2024 and fourth-worst of the five years since the pandemic closed theaters across the country. Plenty of theater and studio executives have said they expect a continued recovery of theatrical exhibition, powered by a strong 2025 slate of high-profile sequels and spinoffs coming over the next three quarters. Those should help shore up the business, though a recent MoffettNathanson analyst report suggests the industry will struggle to generate more than $10 billion a year anytime soon. The problem, they wrote, habits have changed among some sets of moviegoers, and studio output has shrunk dramatically. Big studios aren’t making enough new films, especially different ones not built around franchises, to keep in-theater offerings fresh and diverse. Even the tech giants with streaming services, which do make some of those mid-sized movies, have only sporadically embraced theatrical releases for their feature-length projects, according to MoffettNathanson. Amazon MGM Studios now says it plans theatrical releases for a slate of around 16 films, good news for theaters, but not enough to fix everything. Even big film releases haven't been as big as in previous years, a huge problem for a hit-driven ... More industry. (Graphic courtesy of MoffettNathanson) That’s particularly important given the math these days forces theaters to put big movies in a higher percentage of their available screens, leaving less room for alternative programming. That leads to a lot of empty theaters over time. All of which provides more opportunities for distributors such as Angel Studios, which doesn’t have to rely on a $100 million marketing campaign to reach a specific, loyal audience for the seven films it plans to release this year. "We think theaters should give people a lot more options," Geesey said. The company is in the early stages of international expansion, though it already has Angel Guild members in 150 countries, Geesey said. The company is building out a network of distribution partners in about 60 countries. The King of Kings will debut in about 50 as the network gets its first big test. “We’re focused on audiences that want values-driven entertainment,” Geesey said. “We see that demand and are partnering with amazing companies who see that demand too.” Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website. Editorial StandardsForbes Accolades