The drama series “The Chosen” has severed its relationship with Angel Studios, accusing the Utah-based distributor of breaching its contract with the popular show chronicling the life of Jesus.
Showrunner and series creator Dallas Jenkins explained in a video message Wednesday the reasoning behind his decision to cut ties with Angel Studios, noting that, while the distributor granted him “total creative freedom and ownership” of his series, he and his team at “The Chosen” were ultimately “responsible for immeasurably more than any of us expected in order for this show to survive.”
“This became even more true when — after charging you to watch the show didn’t work — we decided the show should be free, and Angel came up with the pay-it-forward model, where you can choose to pay for the show for yourself and others so it could be free around the world,” Jenkins said. “Of your pay-it-forward contributions, less than half of it actually came to us, somewhere around 40%. The rest went to marketing and Angel Studios.”
The faith-based series, he added, was “solely responsible for the financing of future seasons, as in every dollar for production came from our side.”
As a result, Jenkins said he had to create a company, The Chosen, LLC, which was “responsible for and must pay for all of our legal stuff, including the fact that we’re a public company that must report to the [Securities and Exchange Commission].”
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CBN News reached out to Angel Studios for a comment and was directed to a statement posted to the company’s website, in which the distributor said it “hope[s] that one day the agreement” with “The Chosen” will be “restored.”
“The team at Angel Studios is so happy we were able to be instrumental in the founding of ‘The Chosen’ and thrilled our long hours of hard work over the last [eight] years helped it become the worldwide success it is,” the statement read. “We thank the Angel audience and fans for helping bring ‘The Chosen’ to life — we couldn’t have done this without you.”
As for Jenkins, he said The Chosen, LLC, grew to be such a sizable company that, in order to make ends meet, they had to rely on “gift sales,” such as books, DVDs, and branded apparel.
He explained in his video that he and Angel Studios reached “a new agreement” in 2022, allowing him and his team “to shift our relationship to Come and See, the nonprofit whose mission includes getting ‘The Chosen’ to the world and financing our production.”
“When you donate to Come and See, 100% of your donation goes to the production and marketing and international translations of ‘The Chosen,'” said Jenkins. “Come and See has guaranteed that future seasons will be financed and on schedule, but, of course, we still need your help in making that happen. Gift sales and licenses with third parties, such as other streamers and broadcasters, will continue to financially sustain our overhead and growth as a company.”
However, according to Jenkins, “Shortly after the agreement, Angel Studios breached our contract on multiple occasions to the extent that we believed it should be terminated, which would dissolve our relationship with Angel.”
In his video, the creator of “The Chosen” stressed that neither he nor Angel Studios filed a lawsuit. Rather, they engaged in a private arbitration that resulted in the decision to leave the contractual agreement between the two parties, noting the arbitrator “comprehensively affirmed our position” in a filing Tuesday and “agreed that the contract had been breached in multiple and material ways.”
“We didn’t come to the decision lightly,” he said, “but it was our decision to terminate the contract and ask an arbitrator to rule on the termination.”
As a result of the terminated relationship, viewers will now only be able to watch “The Chosen” on the eponymously named app, mainstream streaming platforms that carry the series, and DVD — not the Angel Studios app.
Season four the “The Chosen” is set to release on streaming next week. You can read more about that here.
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