The King of Kings will be Angel Studios’ top opening since juggernaut Sound of Freedom in 2023 and may well beat the reigning champ for highest-grossing faith-based animated debut, besting DreamWorks Animation’s The Prince of Egypt from 1998. Deadline asks distribution chief Brandon Purdie about the response from audiences and theaters.
Michael Angarano, writer, director and star of road trip comedy Sacramento, unveils the 10-year genesis of his second feature, out today in moderate release. The Minecraft-fueled box office is looking much brighter after that grim first quarter.
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With an estimated $15 million in presales, The King of Kings boasts the widest opening weekend of any Angel Studios’ film, at 3,205 theaters. “We’re excited,” Purdie said as the film eyes a possible No. 2 spot at a domestic box office that surged into action last week.
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Purdie called Sound of Freedom ($184 million domestic, $250 million worldwide) an “outlier. It had so much cultural intensity around it, and films do not have that very often. We feel confident King of Kings is going to chart its own course and do very well for us.” Bookings are strong with the faith-based crowd, but not only them, Purdie said, calling them “all over the place.”
The film was a passion project of Korean director and visual effects artist Seong-Ho Jang, who also wrote and produced. It came to Angel Studios as a finished project. Angel has an unusual greenlight process, running content by its 1 million-strong Angel Guild. For an annual subscription, members vote and comment on film and TV projects and receive perks, including two free tickets to every film. They loved The King of Kings, Purdie said. Angel announced the Easter release last November.
Anecdotally, he said, audiences are exiting with “lots of comments about the beautiful animation and … a lot of children are very touched and moved.” It’s early, but “there have been people coming out of the movie who plan to see it again and bring groups. I think it will have momentum.” Theaters have been supportive starting with presales, which launched two months ago.
The starry voice cast is led by Oscar Isaac as Jesus, Pierce Brosnan as Pontius Pilate, Kenneth Branagh as Charles Dickens, Uma Thurman as Catherine Dickens, Mark Hamill as King Herod, Ben Kingsley as High Priest Caiaphas, Forest Whitaker as Peter and Roman Griffin Davis as Walter Dickens, the wondering child. There’s a cute cat.
The Dickens plot line is a twist as the famous British author walks his initially reluctant son through the story of Jesus. Per the synopsis: “What begins as a bedtime tale becomes a life-changing journey. Through vivid imagination, the boy walks alongside Jesus, witnessing His miracles, facing His trials and understanding His ultimate sacrifice. The King of Kings invites us to rediscover the enduring power of hope, love and redemption through the eyes of a child.” Purdie thinks the cast and Dickens element might help broaden the film’s appeal.
The trailer is below, but a quick note on another faith-based pic: Fathom is releasing Part 3 of The Chosen: Last Supper on 2,300+ screens. Parts 1 and 2 opened over the past two weekends. The distributor also has 500 theaters doing a “binge” of all three parts.
In moderate release: As Vertical continues to expand its theatrical slate with interesting films, Michael Angarano’s Sacramento opens on 241 screens nationally. This is the prolific film and television actor’s second time directing a feature, after well-received Avenues in 2017, and the first with a theatrical release.
Angarano wrote the screenplay with producer Chris Smith and also stars alongside Michael Cera, Kristen Stewart and Maya Erskine, his wife in real life. The two are working on a project to make together, Angarano tells Deadline. Sacramento, which premiered at the Tribeca Festival last summer (see Deadline review) was scored by composer Peter Erskine. Angarano stars as Rickey, an energetic and free-spirited young man with a Peter Pan complex who convinces his longtime friend Glenn to hit pause on his blissful domestic life and embark on an impromptu road trip across California.
Over the past week, Angarano has shuttled from NYC to LA to Sacramento for screenings including with the Sacramento Film Commission, Visit Sacramento and The Sacramento Film Festival with the city’s Mayor Kevin McCarty, California State Sen. Angelique Ashby and Sacramento Film Commissioner Jennifer West. On Thursday, he and Smith were surprised during a live interview on ABC affiliate KXTV-TV when they were presented with the Keys to the City by McCarthy.
They’ll be doing an in-theater Q&A at the AMC Century City in L.A. after the 7 p.m. show.
Angarano, whose credits range from Will & Grace and The Knick to This Is Us, Oppenheimer, Apple’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles and Peacock limited series Devil in Disguise: The John Wayne Gacy, said he and Chris Smith started writing the script 10 years ago after finding themselves with free time when a pilot they acted in didn’t get picked up. “Essentially, we were merging onto [Interstate] 5 North one day. And there are millions of signs that say ‘5 North Sacramento.’ And I just turned to Chris and said, ‘Hey, want to go to Sacramento?’ And Chris said, ‘Yeah, sure, let’s ruin our weekend and go on a six-hour drive to a city I’ve never been to.’
“And so it started as a joke, and we really reverse engineered the entire story around that joke. [Initially] we didn’t intend to write a script about a parenthood or becoming a parent. It was really just always about these two guys. You know, these two characters — one who is the impulsive one, one who was the guy who didn’t want to go to Sacramento. And the story evolved, and the characters grew as we grew. And because Chris and I are both actors, you know, I would get busy. I would go off for a few months. Chris would get busy, go off for a couple months. And so it took us a while, but it was always just something that we came back to, and it was always about making each other laugh.”
He so pleased about the film’s substantial theatrical footprint. “I’m so excited that people have an opportunity to see this in theaters. It’s a comedy and … it’s not the same to watch a comedy on your iPad or in a room by yourself. And I really saw it. I mean, this movie’s always played theaters really well.” He called Sacramento “a throwback to the kind of movies that used to be made.”
Generally, as someone might say who took part in box office giant Oppenheimer, “I think there’s reason to be optimistic about theatrical.”
Magnolia’s Imax release of One to One: John & Yoko by Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September, The Last King of Scotland) opens on 100 large-format screens. With unseen home movies and restored footage from the eponymous One to One benefit concert, spliced together with era-specific material, the distributor is calling this an audacious, experiential and unprecedented look into the lives of the iconic couple. The film screened in the selective Spotlight category at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, following earlier premieres at Venice and Telluride. Expands next week. See Deadline Studio interview with Macdonald here.
New limited releases: The Teacher from Watermelon Films, written and directed by Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning Farah Nabulsi (The Present), debuts in NYC at the Angelika Film Center. Expands to L.A. and the top 10-15 markets on April 18 and the top 50 markets a week later.
In the TIFF-premiering drama, Palestinian schoolteacher Basem (Saleh Bakri) faces personal turmoil after a tragic incident involving his son. He finds solace in a deep bond with his student Adam (Muhammad Abed Elrahman) and British social worker Lisa (Imogen Poots). Meanwhile, an American attorney and his wife push for the return of their son, an Israeli soldier held by a Palestinian resistance group, leading to tensions over a potential prisoner exchange. The intertwining stories highlight themes of empathy and conflict, culminating in a powerful narrative marked by unexpected twists. See Nabulsi’s interview at Deadline’s Red Sea Studio.
Nadia Conners’ SXSW 2024 comedy-drama The Uninvited starring Elizabeth Reaser, Walton Goggins, Lois Smith, Eva De Dominici, Rufus Sewell and Pedro Pascal opens at the IFC Center this week. Adds the Laemmle Monica and Coral Gables in Miami next. Distributed by Foton Distribution, a new label from the producer Foton Pictures.
A sold-out screening Monday at IFC Center featured Conners and Goggins (fresh off the White Lotus Season 3 finale). Connors and Smith are doing Q&A’s this weekend in NY.
The film is set over the course of one night in the Hollywood Hills as Rose (Reaser) and Sammy’s (Goggins) party is interrupted by an unexpected stranger, Helen (Smith). This encounter, along with the presence of other complicated characters from her past and present, forces Rose to confront her insecurities and the loneliness of a deteriorating marriage. As per the synopsis, the film humorously critiques Hollywood’s beauty standards while celebrating the complexities of womanhood and explores the themes of motherhood and self-discovery.
Juno Films’ That They May Face the Rising Sun opens at The Quad in NYC and Laemmle Royal in LA. Directed by Pat Collins and starring Barry Ward and Anna Bederke, it follows a year in the life of a rural lakeside community in Ireland in the 1970s and its cast of authentic, memorable characters. Last spring, in what was considered an upset, it won Best Film at the Irish Film & Television Academy Awards off 11 nominations.
Nora from Suncatcher Productions, the directorial debut of Anna Campbell, opens at Laemmle Glendale near L.A. Moves to the Village East by Angelika in NYC next week — both are weeklong runs with Q&As. Returning to her hometown after abandoning her music career, Nora finds it difficult to settle into the new demands of suburban motherhood. When her husband goes on tour and leaves her solo-parenting their precocious 6-year-old, she is forced to evaluate her current circumstances and the dreams she left behind. Featuring performances by Campbell, Lesley Ann Warren, Kate Miner, Jay Walker and Nick Fink as well as original music by The Airborne Toxic Event’s Noah Harmon.