The Chosen is a Christian-themed historical series created by Dallas Jenkins. The series is the first multi-season look at the life of Jesus of Nazareth, bringing the classic tale to the streaming age of prestige television. Set in the 1st century, the story tells Jesus’ story through the eyes of different people who met, followed, or interacted with him. The pilot premiered on Christmas Eve 2017 and generated enough excitement to get a series which started airing 2019 and has since become a beloved series with a passionate faith based audience.
While primarily a television series, Angel Studios (previously known as VidAngel) has found a great deal of success releasing collections of episodes in theaters due to collaboration through Fathom Events, while not given the big wide release platform of blockbusters due to the limited number of screens and showing the releases, tend to do moderately well. In anticipation of The Chosen season four, Fathom Events and Angel Studios decided to release the episodes in theaters before their streaming release.
This begs the question, is The Chosen season four a box office hit? How does it compare to its budget? How does it compare to other films in terms of how many people have actually seen it?
The Chosen Season 4 Box Office
Fathom Events and Angel Studio released The Chosen season four in three parts, with the first two entries playing in theaters for two weeks and the final entry for one week. The three entries played over the month of February, which notably was a rough month for movies as films like Argylle, Lisa Frankenstein, Madame Web, and Drive-Away Dolls all notably bombed at the box office.
|
Title |
Box Office |
Release Date |
|
The Chosen: S4 Episodes 1-3 |
$14,234,175 |
February 1, 2024 |
|
The Chosen: S4 Episodes 4-6 |
$8,882,174 |
February 15, 2024 |
|
The Chosen: S4 Episodes 7-8 |
$3,915,535 |
February 29, 2024 |
As of March 3, 2024, the three entries in The Chosen that were released in theaters have made a combined total of $26 million. Obviously, The Chosen: S4 Episodes 7-8 have only just begun their theatrical run and could make more money until it leaves theaters on March 10, 2024. Yet given the downward trend of gross between S4 Episodes 1-3 and S4 Episodes 4-6, that suggests a downtrend for the final entry and it is unlikely to pass $8 million meaning the three entries are likely to earn less than $30 million.
As for the downward trend, it can be explained relatively easily. If an audience member did not catch the first entry, they won’t want to see the following episodes. Unless a viewer went out and saw the first set of episodes released, they will just wait to watch all the episodes on streaming to see the story in order. $26 million on it’s own is just a number (but to an average person still a very big number), it is nothing without context.
What is notable about The Chosen is that all of this money from theatrical distribution is extra revenue. The Chosen is a crowd-funded project, so the investment was already made and is still the most sucessful crowd funded project to date. The series generates revenue due to a combination of merchandise, home video sales, and licensing to other streaming platforms and TV networks such as the CW, Prime Video, Peacock, and Netflix.
The creators of The Chosen do not need to release these films in theaters, but do so anyway as a way to not only make extra revenue but also build anticipation and hype for the new seasons release. The Chosen season four theatrical releases were all done in advance of the series streaming debut, so for audiences who really wanted to see it early it was incentive to see it. Yet even if they missed the theatrical release, they can still wait for it on streaming.
Yet one could argue that Angel Studios might have needed to release The Chosen season four in theaters as the season’s reported budget is $40 million, the biggest of any season to date. Due to the series lucrative streaming deals they likely already made that back, but with an increased budget from the previous three seasons that means that investors might have seen less profit than before, so these theatrical releases made up for that.
Box Office In Perspective
While the three entries in The Chosen season 4 earning $26 million in a limited release format certainly can be seen as a hit, it is worth noting how it compares to other films and even ones that were labeled flops. Argylle had a budget of $200 million and only grossed $42 million domestically and $88 million worldwide, so it is certainly a bomb compared to The Chosen. Yet that also means more people actually have seen Argylle than The Chosen, just based on the numbers. Even Madame Web, the biggest box office disappointment of 2024 so far, has grossed $40 million at the domestic box office.
Due to Flordia Govenor Ron DeSantis wagging a cultural war on Disney, many right-leaning audience members and faith based viewers have now wanted to construct a narrative that Disney movies are suffering because they are no long supporting the mega sucessful corporation and now embracing media that falls in line with their world views more. While The Chosen might not be made with the intent, it has been co-opted by a certain subset of fans as a counterpoint to Disney. Yet comparing both The Marvels and Wish, two high-profile bombs from Disney in 2023, shows that more audience members actually saw them than the three entries in The Chosen season four combined.
The Marvels $46 million opening weekend was nearly double what all three entries in The Chosen have made so far. Wish made headlines over Thanksgiving weekend for it’s $31 million five day holiday box office, but that still means more tickets were sold for Wish than The Chosen. This is not to say that either The Marvels or Wish were box office hits, but they were seen by more audiences in theaters than The Chosen season four. The Chosen did not cost as much as those two entries, but it is unrealistic for it’s audience to expect it to reach as wide an audience of as Dinsey films.
This shows that the audience for The Chosen might be passionate, but there is a ceiling for success at this rate. This is similar to a lot of faith-based films. Like adaptations of popular novels of superhero films, faith-based movies have passionate audiences that might rush out to see them opening weekend but they don’t return for repeat viewing. Unlike the other two subgenres mentioned, faith-based films have a more difficult time drawing in a general audience.
It is clear The Chosen is a hit for Angel Studios, as grossing $26 million extra through theatrical releases is a good thing for them. Even with a $40 million budget, they certainly made that back through licensing deals. Through streaming it is one still one of the most watched shows on television. Yet the box office should be taken into perspective, as while other movies might have bombed compared to their budget in terms of general audience exposure, it goes to show that the numbers can tell an interesting story in that even a film that bombs can make enough money to be viewed by a lot of people.
The Chosen: S4 Episodes 7-8 is currently playing in theaters through Fathom Events.
