Angel Studios’ “The King of Kings” roared into theatres over the weekend with a projected $19 million domestic debut, setting a recent record for a biblical animated film and earning certainly one of cinema’s rarest honours: an A+ CinemaScore.
Opening on 3,200 screens, the film grossed an estimated $7 million on Friday, $6.8 million on Saturday, and $5.2 million on Sunday, based on Angel.
The weekend total of $19,050,397 makes “The King of Kings” the most important opening for a biblical animated feature in history, surpassing “The Prince of Egypt” ($14.5 million), “The Star” ($9.8 million) and “Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie” ($6.2 million), based on The Numbers.
“The Angel Guild picks winners. Angel’s revolutionary idea is straightforward: know your audience — and take heed to them,” said Global Head of Theatrical Distribution & Brand Development at Angel, Brandon Purdie. “The CinemaScore for The King of Kings says all of it. The film is certainly one of only 128 movies to attain an A+ CinemaScore, and only the fifth animated film to carry that title that isn’t a Pixar/Disney production. Families want quality movies to see together in theatres. This weekend simply reflects what audiences are craving.”
The film, which recounts the lifetime of Jesus Christ through the eyes of a toddler and the storytelling lens of Charles Dickens, is loosely based on Dickens’ book The Life of Our Lord.
The film blends modern virtual cinematography with Victorian-era aesthetics and a star-studded voice forged: Kenneth Branagh, Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan, Mark Hamill, Forest Whitaker, Ben Kingsley, Oscar Isaac and Roman Griffin Davis. The film also features original music, with Kristin Chenoweth co-writing and performing the closing song, “Live Like That.”
In the movie, Dickens recounts the story of Jesus to his son, leading viewers into an imaginative retelling of the Gospel through a toddler’s perspective.
“What begins as a bedtime tale becomes a life-changing journey,” reads the film’s synopsis. “Through vivid imagination, the boy walks alongside Jesus, witnessing His miracles, facing His trials, and understanding His ultimate sacrifice.”
South Korean filmmaker and director Seong-Ho Jang, a professing Christian, told The Christian Post the project was born out of each personal conviction and cultural concern.
“As a Christian myself, I used to be somewhat bit surprised that there aren’t any feature film animations that discuss Jesus’ story,” he told CP through a translator. “So there was big motivation for me.”
The director also shared his desire to achieve a broader audience, including younger generations in his home country, where church attendance has declined. “There are loads of Christians in Korea,” he said. “But sadly, not many young persons are going to church. I assumed, there’s a necessity for somebody to deliver the message of Jesus in the precise way.”
“This entire project began with my considering that I desired to extract only one word from the complete Bible,” Jang said. “I assumed that was love. Jesus is love. I would like [the audience] to feel that the explanation for His sacrifice is His love for us.”
Cinematographer and producer Woo-hyung Kim told CP the team used advanced motion capture and virtual production to create a cinematic experience that feels more like a live-action epic than traditional animation.
“We hired the actors first, after which we captured the motions,” Kim explained. “And then once it completes, I’m going into the virtual world with my virtual camera and I do the camera movements there, many times.”
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