Monetization Strategy
DAVID will be distributed globally by Angel Studios – the distributors of the successful series “The Chosen,” “His Only Son,” and most recently, the highly successful “Sound of Freedom.” “Sound of Freedom” was Angel’s second foray into cinema distribution after the success of “His Only Son” and has grossed over $180 million at the domestic box office alone. Due to their innovative distribution approach, Angel has proven their ability to galvanize the support of the faith audience and see faith content break into the mainstream.
The DAVID strategy will be to release on more than 4,000 screens in the US and secure major releases in all significant international markets. The Producer hopes that all faith communities worldwide who know and love the story of David will get to screen the film. Outside of the faith community, we believe that David’s story has the adventure, drama, and courage to draw and delight a mainstream audience far beyond the reach of most faith films.
Our unique approach to a successful cinema release includes four key pillars:
- Building a Community. A significant portion of DAVID’s production budget has been raised via crowdfunding, and our community of fans, friends, and followers is growing constantly. Plans are in place to continue growing and expanding this community until the global release in 2025.
- Engaging the Faith Community. The initial “crowd” behind DAVID will be just a tiny subset of nearly 2.5 billion Christians worldwide, representing a massive global audience of families who already know and love the story of David. While DAVID is for a diverse, international movie-going audience, the Faith community is very likely where DAVID’s “snowball” will start. Making a movie that authentically honors the biblical text is the filmmakers’ passion and priority, who firmly believe that cinematic audiences will be delighted by DAVID’s quality, entertainment, and spiritual depth.
- Release of the Young DAVID series. This will precede the release of the DAVID feature film and be a tool for building awareness ahead of the release of DAVID. The Young DAVID episodes will be critical assets in driving pre-sales of the DAVID movie tickets. Minno Kids and Angel Studios will release Young DAVID between November 2023 and March 2024.
- Global Theatrical Release Strategy. Angel Studios has developed a highly innovative and effective approach to marketing a theatrical release that will be refined and adapted for DAVID. Part of Angel Studios’ success with “Sound of Freedom” was their groundbreaking approach to pre-selling tickets and allowing fans to “Pay-it-Forward” (pre-purchase tickets for fans who could not normally afford a movie outing). With this experience, marketing pre-sales of movie tickets for DAVID will start as early as possible. The goal is to build momentum with Young DAVID in collaboration with the release of incredible new songs and a PIF campaign and to leverage pre-sales over an extended period, which major studios typically spend over a hundred million dollars to achieve.
The Commercial Potential of DAVID
Animated movies can draw an entire family audience, have strong re-watchability, and have the potential for multiple ancillary revenue streams – from music to toys, books, apparel, and many more merchandise categories. This breadth of appeal and diversity of revenue streams have made animated movies one of the most commercially successful film genres. The current commercial plans include:
- Theatrical Box Office
The Producer’s vision for DAVID is to become the most-viewed animated film of all time – an epic biblical story to delight the faith audience while drawing a broader mainstream audience. While the cinema industry faces increasing competition from various forms of home entertainment, six of the top ten box-office earners of all time have been released since 2018, and 2023 saw two of the top twenty box-office grosses of all time. The goal is to make DAVID the must-see family movie event of 2025 with a global theatrical release, in addition to several ancillary revenue streams that should be possible from the DAVID property, as well as an additional faith-based series developed from the “Torch Creation Fund” to benefit all Company unitholders.
- Licensing and Merchandise (L&M)
Retail products, publishing, gaming, and other licensing constitute a significant revenue stream for successful animated properties. As a reference, “Toy Story” and “Cars” have each generated an estimated $10 billion in gross revenue from L&M to date, and “Frozen” generated approximately $5 billion in L&M gross in 2014.
DAVID has vast and unique merchandise potential. The strategy of releasing the five Young DAVID episodes from November 2023 to March 2024 as a prequel to the 2025 DAVID feature film will lay the foundation for creating further episodes of Young DAVID or DAVID content for years after the feature film. This strategy strategically maintains licensing activities and product retail beyond the initial feature film release.
While L&M opportunities are expected to increase in 2025 with the launch of DAVID, an initial range of merchandise has been launched via the Angel Studios app and online store – see the following link: https://shop.angel.com/pages/david-1. One unique opportunity the crowdfunding and community-building model offers is the ability to build a merchandise range and business during film production.
In addition, plush toys, puzzles, kids’ apparel, journals, books, and many other functional and inspirational products for teenagers and adults will be launched.
iii. Home Entertainment
As a reference, “Minions” (2015) has earned $125 million in DVD/Blu-Ray sales. TV/Streaming revenue is estimated at approximately 5% of box-office gross. A successful theatrical release generally creates a strong demand for TV/Streaming rights – although no assurance can be given.
Revenue potential from music publishing, broadcasting, and streaming the Young DAVID series has been explored.
- Future Properties and Revenue Streams
The founders of Slingshot ProductionsTM have committed a percentage of net revenue to developing future faith content, David Torch Fund: 9% of DAVID and Young DAVID net revenue. Investors in the DAVID project will continue to participate as unitholders in any other content produced by Slingshot ProductionsTM in the future.
The long-term plan is to produce more DAVID content pending a successful release. The filmmakers aspire to produce more animated films about Esther and other biblical figures.
- Other Commercial Opportunities Under Exploration
A successful release of DAVID and the Young DAVID series will open new avenues for revenue growth. Opportunities under exploration include, but are not limited to, a DAVID Immersive Experience, Musical Theater production, music publishing, curriculum development, and more.