By India McCarty
Angel Studios’ THE KING OF KINGS opened with a record-breaking $19 million at the box office this weekend.
“The Angel Guild picks winners,” Brandon Purdie, Global Head of Theatrical Distribution & Brand Development at Angel, said in a statement. “Angel’s revolutionary idea is simple: know your audience — and listen to them.”
He continued, “The CinemaScore for THE KING OF KINGS says it all. The film is one of only 128 films to achieve an A+ CinemaScore, and only the 5th animated film to hold that title that isn’t a Pixar/Disney production. Families want quality films to see together in theaters. This weekend simply reflects what audiences are craving.”
THE KING OF KINGS’ current box office earnings stands at just over $19 million globally, per BoxOfficeMojo. This is the largest debut for an animated biblical movie since 1998’s THE PRINCE OF EGYPT (trailer via YouTube).
“It’s discouraging to think that people haven’t been fulfilling this massive of an audience for that long in terms of the animated space,” Angel Studios co-founder Jordan Harmon told Variety. “We less look at things like, ‘What are we missing inside of our slate?’ We look at what the Guild is really resonating with. I think the Guild naturally finds things before even the executives could know that it’s becoming a pent-up demand for the world.”
Movieguide® awarded THE KING OF KINGS a +3 content rating. The review reads:
THE KING OF KINGS is a terrific, powerful way to introduce children to the story of Jesus in a way they can understand, through the dynamics of the Dickens family. In real life Charles Dickens was ambiguous about his Christian faith. However, there’s something exciting and special about the movie’s historical, Dickensian way of telling the story rather than other animated versions that use children or animals. THE KING OF KINGS is an excellent, acceptable version of the Gospel for children aged six and up.
Related: How The Director of King of Kings Brings Dickens & Christ to Life
The movie also boasts Angel’s widest opening weekend for any of their movies, at 3,205 theaters, with Purdie saying in another statement, “Our exhibition partners understand Angel’s desire to drive audiences back to theaters.”
“I know there is an enormous yearning in the audience for this kind of content that is both faith-inflected — doesn’t mean that it has to be evangelical, or it has be, you know, beating you over the head with a religious message — but just that it acknowledges that faith is an element in human life and history,” Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo told the outlet.
He continued, “[Angel Studios has] smartly identified and understood that there is a massive underserved audience there of not only faithful people looking for depictions of faith on the screen and in their entertainment, but you also have families with very few options of places they can take their family to be entertained.”
“When your audience wants something, you have to find a way to give it to them,” Arroyo concluded. “There’s clearly an audience and a market for this.”
With a record-breaking opening weekend and support from viewers and critics alike, it’s clear audiences are hungry for movies like THE KING OF KINGS.
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