Revolutionizing Storytelling: How Angel Studios Amplifies Light and Audience Intelligence to Transform Entertainment
Transcript from New York Principled Business Summit
Jeff Harmon, Angel Studios
Jeff Harmon:
OK, so that's a little preview. Sorry you couldn't hear it super well, but you get an idea of the scope of what we've been doing. The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda for the generation to come. Storytelling and culture are upstream from politics. You want to change the world in 10 years? You have to change storytelling.
And as you'll see, some of our films—like *His Only Son*, *The Shift*, *Drive-Thru Comedy* (which has 5.8 billion views), *Tuttle Twins*, which teaches kids about freedom, *The Wingfeather Saga* (a fantasy), and *Sound of Freedom* (which was a huge global hit)—are making that impact. *Cabrini*, *Sight & Sound of Hope*, if you recognize some of these, last year we did $300 million in global box office. We have 100 global distribution partners, a million monthly active users on the Angel app, 45 million downloads worldwide, 9 billion views, and 375,000+ Guild members. I’ll explain what that is in a minute.
So how did this happen? How did a little studio out of Utah, created by Idaho potato farmers, become one of the top 10 studios in the U.S. last year at the box office, passing MGM, A24, and AMC Entertainment?
If you’ve ever read this book, it’s a really good book—*The User Method* by Jeff Schwarting. In it, he explains that the biggest companies, the unicorn companies, were created by founders solving problems for themselves. Steve Wozniak just wanted a computer that he liked, so he made one, and that was the beginning of Apple. The Airbnb founders couldn’t pay their rent, so they rented out air mattresses on their floor to conference attendees, and that was the start of Airbnb. Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook because he had trouble making friends. What we saw was, for our families—we have a lot of kids—we were tired of the way the entertainment industry operates, tired of nihilistic content.
We dug into what the problem was and found what we call the "gatekeeper problem." It’s not the industry, the filmmakers, or the craftsmen—it’s a small group of gatekeepers in LA, living in a bubble. They make $100 million decisions in boardrooms, deciding what the world watches. That’s the problem. We wanted to solve it.
First, we wanted to create a studio that amplifies light, rather than nihilism. Our mission is to amplify content that is true, authentic, honest, lovely, noble, admirable, and excellent.
Let me back up. We realized that 4 out of 5 movies in the box office are failing, and for every hit TV show, 100 others don’t make it. The failure rate is incredibly high. If you look at marketing research by HarrisX, global audiences want more inspiration, less conflict, more faith, and more morality in their content. We decided the solution was to build what we call the "Angel Guild."
The Angel Guild is made up of 390,000 members in 155 countries who vote on the content that comes into Angel Studios. If you’re a member, you get to watch movies submitted to Angel Studios, vote on them, give feedback to the directors, and talk to the filmmakers. As Chief Content Officer, I can’t bring a movie into Angel Studios unless it passes the Angel Guild. One of our investors recently said, “You’re using audience intelligence. You’re just asking people what they want and giving it to them.”
That’s how *Sound of Freedom* was discovered. It had been on the shelf for 8 years, with no studio wanting it. *His Only Son* was discovered the same way. Filmmakers can perfect their movies through this process. It’s like telling my kids, "Harmons live on the other side of the screen." The Angel Guild lets you be on the creation side of the screen, helping filmmakers improve their work.
There’s science behind this. In 1906, Francis Galton, a statistician, observed a crowd at a fair guessing the weight of an ox. Galton assumed the butchers and ranchers would guess more accurately than others. But when he averaged the guesses of the crowd, they were off by only 1 pound—closer than any expert guess. The wisdom of crowds is powerful.
On *Who Wants to Be a Millionaire*, the audience gets it right 91% of the time, compared to 61% for experts. We believe the Angel Guild can turn the 80% failure rate in Hollywood into an 80% success rate.
Our results show it. Our Rotten Tomatoes popcorn meter score averages 95%, compared to Paramount’s 84%. Guild members also get movie tickets to every Angel Studios movie, like a movie pass. Of the movies that grossed over $10 million in theaters, 18% of A24 films did that, 45% of Lionsgate films, and 86% of Angel Studios films.
From April last year to April this year, we had 951 submissions to Angel Studios, and only 13 films made it through. We look for excellence. There are many benefits for Guild members: early access to content, discounts on merchandise, and more. As the Guild grows, we fill theaters, get more press, and create more impact.
We’ve built an entire technology platform with over 70 engineers and 19 patents. We expect to pass a million Guild members next year. Angel Studios is becoming a major competitor to the big studios. Recently, we opened up crowdfunding, and in just 11 days, 22,000 people invested over $20 million into Angel Studios. That brings us to over 30,000 investors.
Now, let me show you some upcoming clips. We’ve got *Tuttle Twins*, a series that teaches kids about economics and life principles. In one episode, the twins meet Milton Friedman and learn about inflation.
*Tuttle Twins* is exploding—one clip of Milton Friedman has over 10 million views on YouTube and Instagram. We have another episode with Mike Rowe from *Dirty Jobs*. He was on Broadway, so we had him sing in one episode. We even have Satoshi Nakamoto guest-starring.
The *Tuttle Twins* series is growing exponentially. We’ve got more movies coming to theaters, all passed through the Angel Guild.
Audience Member:
Can you explain the Angel Studios app?
Jeff Harmon:
You can go to the Angel Studios app and access a lot of free content. You can also join the Guild to get early access and be part of the decision-making process.
Audience Member:
How do you handle submissions?
Jeff Harmon:
We have "torch" submissions. A torch is like a prototype of a movie. It’s similar to how the creator of the Statue of Liberty raised money for it. He built the torch first, set it up in a park in Paris, and crowdfunded the statue. He did the same in the U.S. to fund the pedestal. The Statue of Liberty was crowdfunded by the people, not gifted by the French government. We use the same method to help filmmakers raise money for their projects.
Audience Member:
Is Angel Studios faith-based?
Jeff Harmon:
We are faith-friendly, but not all our content is faith-based. For example, *The Wingfeather Saga* is a fantasy series, and *Sound of Freedom* was called faith-based, but it only references God twice. It’s not strictly faith content.
Audience Member:
Do Guild members get to review films?
Jeff Harmon:
Yes, Guild members get to review and vote on films as part of their membership. If you invest in Angel Studios, you own stock. Guild members pay for membership, like Costco or Amazon Prime, and they get discounts on merchandise. It’s a way for them to be part of the creative process.
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