The distributor of the improbable hit movie on child sex trafficking, “Sound of Freedom,” said on Wednesday that the film’s thousands of crowdfunding funders had seen a 20% profit in less than 90 days.
Angel Studios, the film’s distributor, claims that almost 2,000 cinemas are playing “Sound of Freedom.”
Five weeks after its July 4 premiere, the film has earned $172.8 million at the box office, surpassing the earnings of the expected blockbusters “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.” “Barbie,” the supposed “feminist” movie, has dominated the summer’s top-earning spot.
Angel Studios has developed expertise in crowdfunding within the religious community to reach the audiences most likely to purchase tickets for upcoming releases and support the studio’s overall work.
Mr. Harmon has said that the Angel Guild’s backers are “essential to our theatrical approach” and that paying them out as soon as feasible is the company’s top objective.
As Angel Studios CEO Neal Harmon said, “We are happy to be able to get monies back to them in three months.”
The 6,678 members of the Angel Guild who contributed to the launch budget for “Sound of Freedom” have now been repaid $1.20 for every $1 they committed.
According to series producer Dallas Jenkins, Angel Studios also utilized a version of crowdfunding called crowdsourcing to “pay it forward,” which allowed moviegoers who would not otherwise be able to afford to see the movie to attend.
Another Angel Studios movie, “The Chosen,” a seven-season drama about the life of Jesus and his followers, has also used crowdfunding to produce the film.
In a sense, the public is the producer of the movie.
The studio’s name has a double meaning in that it produces faith-based films, but an “angel” is a term used to denote a person who provides startup seed money for a business enterprise.
