Raphael Stevens

Activist investor Nelson Peltz and his firm, Trian, are seeking seats on Disney’s board.
The news follows Disney’s appointment of Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman and former Sky TV boss Jeremy Darroch to its board Wednesday.
Disney suggested the proxy fight stems from Peltz ally and former Marvel boss Ike Perlmutter’s grudge against Disney CEO Bob Iger.
Later Thursday, Disney reinstated its dividend at 30 cents a share.

Nelson Peltz, founder and chief executive officer of Trian Fund Management, during the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute Priority Summit in Miami, Florida, US, on Thursday, March 30, 2023.
Marco Bello | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Activist investor Nelson Peltz and his firm are seeking more than two seats on Disney’s board, according to a person familiar with the matter, setting the stage for a proxy fight.
Trian Fund Management, which Peltz co-founded, said Thursday morning that it “intends to take our case for change directly to shareholders.”

Disney, for its part, suggested the proxy fight stemmed from a personal grudge held by one of Peltz’s allies, former Marvel boss Ike Perlmutter.
Trian said Disney earlier in the day offered to set up a meeting with the entertainment giant’s board, but rejected Trian’s bid to join the board, including the addition of Peltz. Trian did not note in a statement how many seats it plans to seek.
Trian declined to comment beyond its statement.
The news came the morning after Disney added Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman and former Sky TV boss Jeremy Darroch to its board, a move widely seen as a bid to fend off a potential challenge from Peltz. Former Illumina CEO Francis deSouza will not seek reelection to the board.
“While James Gorman and Sir Jeremy Darroch represent an improvement from the status quo, the addition of these directors will not, in our view, restore investor confidence or address the root cause behind the significant value destruction and missteps that this Board has overseen,” Trian said in a statement.

Disney shares are up about 6% this year, far underperforming the S&P 500. The stock was flat Thursday. Later in the day, the company said it would reinstate its dividend at 30 cents a share for shareholders of record as of Dec. 11, payable Jan. 10. Iger had said earlier this year Disney would bring back the dividend, which it suspended in early 2020 during the first days of the pandemic.
Trian said it owns about $3 billion in Disney stock. The firm has oversight of shares owned by former executive Perlmutter, a critic of Disney chief Bob Iger whom the company fired earlier this year.
Disney fired back Thursday, saying Perlmutter has an ax to grind against Iger. Perlmutter has long complained that Disney had spent too much.
“Mr. Peltz, in partnership with Isaac Perlmutter, a former Disney executive, intends to take its case to shareholders. Mr. Perlmutter owns 78% of the shares that Mr. Peltz claims beneficial ownership of, or more than 25 million of the 33 million shares,” Disney said in a statement.
“This dynamic is relevant to assessing Mr. Peltz and any other nominees he may put forth as directors, as Mr. Perlmutter was terminated from his employment by Disney earlier this year and has voiced his longstanding personal agenda against Disney’s CEO, Robert A. Iger, which may be different than that of all other shareholders,” the company added.
Peltz had earlier pushed for a seat on Disney’s board after Trian took an approximately $800 million stake in Disney. After Iger unveiled a broad restructuring of the company in February, enacting layoffs and cost cuts, Peltz backed off a proxy fight.
But Peltz reignited his push in the lead-up to Disney’s quarterly earnings report earlier this month. The activist investor had been waiting to see what happened with the report to decide whether to make a move, CNBC previously reported.
Iger on Tuesday said he was focused on “building again” and intends to focus efforts on theme parks, ESPN’s upcoming streaming service and improving the studio business.
– CNBC’s Alex Sherman contributed to this report.
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Biotech stocks rose as AbbVie announced plans to buy cancer drug developer ImmunoGen for $10 billion. 
Shares of ImmunoGen, which develops cancer treatments called antibody-drug conjugates, closed nearly 83% higher.
Other biotech companies developing ADCs jumped on the news of the buyout. 

Test tubes are seen in front of a displayed AbbVie logo in this illustration taken on May 21, 2021.
Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Biotech stocks rose Thursday as AbbVie announced plans to buy cancer drug developer ImmunoGen for $10.1 billion. 
Shares of ImmunoGen closed nearly 83% higher Thursday, while AbbVie’s stock closed almost 3% higher.

ImmunoGen develops cancer drugs called antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs, which are designed to directly kill cancer cells and spare healthy ones. Shares of other biotech companies developing ADCs, which are among the hottest areas in the pharmaceutical industry, jumped on the news of the buyout. 
That includes Sutro Biopharma’s stock, which closed nearly 13% higher Thursday and shares of Mersana Therapeutics, which closed up more than 3%. Shares of ADC Therapeutics also closed 6% higher Thursday.
The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF, which focuses on small and midsize biotech companies, closed up 2% Thursday. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index closed more than 1% higher.
Under the terms of the deal, AbbVie will pay $31.26 a share in cash for ImmunoGen, a roughly 95% premium to Wednesday’s closing price. AbbVie said it expects to complete the acquisition, which aims to strengthen its oncology pipeline, in the middle of 2024.
Guggenheim analyst Michael Schmidt said the price of the deal reflects the “increasing interest we have seen from large biopharma companies wanting to increase their exposure” in ADCs, which he called an “attractive area.”

For example, Pfizer agreed to acquire Seagen, a pioneer in ADCs, for $43 billion earlier this year. Merck and Daiichi Sankyo also recently agreed to jointly develop and commercialize three potential ADCs in a deal worth up to $22 billion.Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

Disney CEO Bob Iger acknowledged his company has focused too much on movie messaging and not enough on quality storytelling.
Disney named two new board members Wednesday as it prepares for a proxy fight from Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management.
Disney has drawn ire from Republican politicians for being “too woke” in its storytelling.

New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin, left, and Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, speak during the Times’ annual DealBook Summit in New York City, Nov. 29, 2023.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger said Wednesday he will no longer tolerate his company’s partners and creative team prioritizing messaging over storytelling.
“Creators lost sight of what their No. 1 objective needed to be,” Iger said at the DealBook Summit in New York on Wednesday. “We have to entertain first. It’s not about messages.”

Iger has recently pushed to improve the quality of Disney films in 2024 and beyond. He is cutting back the number of movies Disney makes to focus on making better films. Earlier this week, he told Disney employees at a town hall that creating hit movies is the best way the company can change perception for investors and employees.
Iger said Disney’s prioritization of messaging over storytelling peaked “while [he] was gone” in 2022, alluding to the 11 months he left his job as Disney’s executive chairman. Iger had been in charge of “creative endeavors” in 2020 and 2021, even while Bob Chapek ran the company as CEO.
“We have entertained with values and with having a positive impact on the world in many different ways. ‘Black Panther’ is a great example of that,” Iger said. “I like being able to entertain if you can infuse it with positive messages and have a good impact on the world. Fantastic. But that should not be the objective. When I came back, what I have really tried to do is to return to our roots.”
Disney has dealt with blowback from Republican politicians, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, and critics on social media for including a same-sex kiss in 2022’s “Lightyear” and an openly gay character in 2022’s “Strange World.” 2023’s “Elemental” also includes a nonbinary character.
While Disney has a long history of infusing storytelling with positive morals, Iger acknowledged during Disney’s earnings conference call earlier this month that he believes the company’s storytelling has suffered as the company has increased the number of movies it’s made for both Disney+ and theatrical release. Iger reiterated that he has emphasized to his creative executives and production partners that making engaging stories has to be Disney’s first priority.

“I’ve worked hard since I’ve been back to reminding the creative community who are our partners and our employees that that’s the objective,” Iger said. “And I don’t really want to tolerate the opposite.”
Iger’s comments come as Disney faces pressure to turn around its business and boost its share price. Sustained box-office troubles, including the recent disappointing showings of “The Marvels” and the animated film “Wish,” have weighed on the company’s performance.
Activist investor Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management said in a statement Thursday it will move forward with an effort to nominate new directors to the Disney board, concluding that “investor confidence is low, key strategic questions loom, and even Disney’s CEO is acknowledging that the Company’s challenges are greater than previously believed.” Trian will seek multiple board seats, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Disney named two new board members on Wednesday — former Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman and former Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch — as it gears up for a potential proxy fight. Current Disney board member Francis A. deSouza won’t run for reelection at the annual meeting.
WATCH: Iger speaks at DealBook Summit More

Children in Ghana are harvesting cocoa used in Mars’ M&M’s and Snickers, according to a CBS News report.
Mars said in a statement to CNBC that it condemns the use of child labor and is “fully committed” to ending the practice in its supply chain.
The world’s largest chocolate makers have been pledging to eliminate child labor for more than two decades, but the practice still persists.

Detail of a recently opened cocoa pod in Asikasu on Dec. 19, 2020.
Cristina Aldehuela | Afp | Getty Images

Candy giant Mars said it aims to end the use of child labor in its supply chain after CBS News reported that children in Ghana are harvesting the cocoa that finds its way into the company’s M&M’s and Snickers.
For more than two decades, the world’s largest chocolate makers have been pledging to eliminate — or at least reduce their reliance on — child labor. But those same companies have blown past industry-imposed deadlines to clean up their supply chains.

For its part, Mars’ latest deadline to end child labor in its supply chain is 2025. The company said more than 65% of its West African cocoa supply chain has already achieved compliance.
However, CBS News reported that Mars is further away from reaching that goal than it publicly projects. The news outlet said field supervisors from small subsistence farms regularly lied on their paperwork, saying children were attending school rather than working in cocoa fields, and alleged the companies never tried to verify that information.
“Mars unequivocally condemns the use of child labor. It has no place in our supply chain, and we are fully committed to helping to eradicate it,” the candy maker said in a statement to CNBC.
The company also said it is “urgently investigating” the claims made by CBS and is prepared to take “appropriate action” against any supplier not in compliance with its code of conduct.
The report compounds the issues Mars faces related to child labor. A lawsuit filed in the Superior Court of the District of Washington on Wednesday targets Mars, agricultural giant Cargill and Toblerone maker Mondelez, accusing the companies and their leaders of negligent supervision and consumer fraud tied to child labor in their supply chains.

The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a similar lawsuit in 2021 that aimed to hold Nestle USA and Cargill responsible for child slavery on African farms that supplied their cocoa.
Read the full statement from Mars below:

Mars unequivocally condemns the use of child labor. It has no place in our supply chain, and we are fully committed to helping to eradicate it.
Despite our repeated requests, CBS did not provide specific details of their investigation to Mars ahead of their broadcast, which meant that we were unable to look into the allegations raised in their program. We are now urgently investigating the claims made in the broadcast and are ready to take appropriate action against any supplier found not to have met our expectations laid out in our Supplier Code of Conduct.
Our cocoa suppliers in Ghana have agreed to adhere to our robust Supplier Code of Conduct and we have also been clear that they must have a Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) in place by 2025 that complies with the industry leading International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) standard. Over 65% of our cocoa supply in West Africa is already covered by CLMRS which is implemented by our suppliers on the ground, with audits conducted by certification bodies as part of Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade certification requirements. We have a robust Protecting Children Action Plan in place that is backed by a significant financial investment totaling hundreds of millions of dollars over the coming years. We are also transparent in saying that we know that more needs to be done and we continue to work diligently with parties across the cocoa sector to further help advance respect for human rights in the cocoa supply chain.

Read the full CBS News report here.Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

Cities of Success

“Cities of Success” special featuring Nashville will air on CNBC on December 6 at 10pm ET

The vinyl record business has undergone a remarkable multibillion-dollar resurgence in the past decade.
The revival was fueled by artists such as Taylor Swift and retailers including Target and Walmart, along with consumers rekindling their love for the nostalgic format during the Covid pandemic.
United Record Pressing has become a major player in the vinyl market, producing approximately 40,000 records daily at its Nashville, Tennessee, facility.

A stack of freshly pressed gold vinyl records at United Record Pressing.

This story is part of CNBC’s new quarterly Cities of Success series, which explores cities that have been transformed into business hubs with an entrepreneurial spirit that has attracted capital, companies and workers.
Once considered a dying industry, the vinyl record business has undergone a remarkable multibillion-dollar resurgence in the past decade. It has been fueled by popular artists such as Taylor Swift and major retailers including Target and Walmart, along with a growing wave of consumers rekindling their love for the nostalgic format during the Covid pandemic.

“Never in a million years did I think it would, as a market and as an industry, become what it’s become today,” Mark Michaels, CEO and chairman of United Record Pressing, the largest vinyl recording pressing plant in North America, told CNBC’s Andrea Day in the upcoming primetime special “Cities of Success,” which airs Dec. 6 at 10 p.m. ET.

United Record Pressing CEO Mark Michaels inspecting a vinyl record.

The global vinyl record market was valued at $1.98 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach $4.12 billion by 2030, according to Verified Market Research. More than 41 million vinyl albums were sold in the U.S. last year — the highest number since 1988, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
United Record Pressing has become a major player in the vinyl market, producing approximately 40,000 records daily at its Nashville, Tennessee, facility. Founded in 1949 as Southern Plastics, the company has a rich history of producing vinyl records for iconic artists, including The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Adele and Jack White.
But the company was facing an uncertain future 16 years ago when Michaels acquired it.

Second wind

The vinyl record industry had been in decline for several decades due to the emergence of more convenient physical formats such as cassette tapes and CDs, a decrease in the quality of vinyl records due to lower-quality materials and processes, and the rise of digital music, such as MP3s and online streaming.

Vinyl record sales plummeted in the 1980s and 1990s. And by the early 2000s, the industry was on the verge of extinction: In 2006, only 1 million vinyl records were sold in the U.S., according to RIAA.
“I questioned what I did all the time,” Michaels recounted after acquiring the company. “I had many sleepless nights. [Even] my family questioned what I had done.”
But in the years that followed, Michaels said, he noticed a promising trend: Indie artists displayed a growing interest in vinyl.
Hoping to position United Record Pressing as the go-to pressing plant for those artists and music producers who valued the tangible vinyl experience, Michaels purchased old record presses from closed plants to accommodate potential growth.
“Prior to 2016, you had to be able to find and restore an old record press, and that was a real tough, tough search,” Michaels said.
The demand for vinyl from both indie and mainstream artists soon led to reissues and colored variants, marking a turning point, according to Michaels. That growth gained further momentum with the entry of major retailers such as Target and Walmart into the vinyl market in the early 2010s.

Mainstream lift

When Target and Walmart, two of the largest retailers in North America, decided to stock vinyl the entire supply chain was significantly affected, according to Michaels.
Vinyl began reaching a wider market segment: consumers who may not have traditionally shopped in independent record stores but were keen on acquiring mainstream vinyl titles.
“We recognized that with all the old presses that we had acquired, and we built the company around, that was inadequate to be able to service the needs of where the market was going,” Michaels said. “Conveniently, in sort of 2016, a couple of companies started manufacturing new record presses.”

Read more about Nashville and CNBC’s Cities of Success

Soon after, United Record Pressing implemented a growth strategy, relocating to a larger facility in 2017. The company established a creative marketing team that engaged with artists and labels, conceptualizing unique vinyl ideas such as liquid-filled, split-colored and scented records.
The company also included a digital download coupon with each record and initiated a record label, recording artists on tape and pressing directly to vinyl.
Michaels said the company also orchestrated a grassroots public relations campaign to highlight its 60-year history as the premier vinyl pressing plant in North America.

United Record Pressing’s expansion space.

The new space, spanning 155,000 square feet in Nashville, not only met present requirements but also positioned the company for future growth — which would come just a few years later when the Covid pandemic provided an additional boost to the industry as people reengaged with the nostalgic format.
Today, the medium reigns as the most popular physical music format in the U.S., representing 72% of all physical music sales, ahead of CDs and cassettes, according to mid-2023 data — the most recent information available from the RIAA.
According to Billboard, the average price of a vinyl record increased from $26.12 in 2021 to $29.65 in 2022, reflecting heightened production costs and the impact of inflation.
In addition, the landscape of vinyl retailers has evolved over time. Indie record stores led the market in 2015 with 45.4% of sales, Billboard reported, followed by internet or mail-order sellers such as Amazon at 32.9%, and chain stores such as Best Buy at 15%.
By 2018, Amazon had eaten into indie stores’ dominance, with both categories representing 41% of market share, while Best Buy’s share had decreased to just over 10%. And by 2019, major retailers such as Walmart and Target were registering on the scene.
Where big-box retailers made up only 1% of vinyl record market share in 2015, they accounted for 14.6% of sales in 2021, according to Billboard.

Artist-driven

Michaels told CNBC he is confident that the market’s continued growth will be artist-driven. That plus a general shift in interest, as younger listeners discover vinyl, suggest the medium is here to stay, he said.
Artists such as Taylor Swift offer collectible versions of their albums, called “variants,” which are multicolored vinyl records.

Recording artist Taylor Swift’s entire music catalog, including her album “Red,” has been pressed at United Record Pressing.

“When Taylor releases a new record, there may be eight, nine, 10, different variants of that same record — different colors, different combinations, maybe there’s some unique tracks that weren’t included on the digital release, or the CD, but you get it on the vinyl,” Michaels explained. “There’s a lot of fans that say, ‘There are eight different variants. I want one of each, please.’ They’re very supportive.”
The CEO attributes a portion of his company’s success to the city of Nashville, too, praising its deep-rooted connection to music and the creative industry, which has provided a dedicated and skilled workforce.
“You have the whole musical ecosystem here,” he said. “You have artists, producers, studios — it all works together in a highly symbiotic way. It’s the perfect place, and we’re very fortunate to be here.”
TUNE IN: The “Cities of Success” special featuring Nashville will air on CNBC on Dec. 6 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. More

Cities of Success

“Cities of Success” special featuring Nashville will air on CNBC on December 6 at 10pm ET

The Nashville building boom is in full effect.
Housing has become less and less affordable in the area.
While the music industry has always called Nashville home, other sectors are moving in and buying up commercial space.

Detached houses on a large housing development on the western side of Nashville, Tennessee.
Georgeclerk | Istock | Getty Images

This story is part of CNBC’s new quarterly Cities of Success series, which explores cities that have been transformed into business hubs with an entrepreneurial spirit that has attracted capital, companies and workers.
Nashville natives say they barely recognize the city’s skyline anymore, and they probably won’t anytime soon, as cranes still litter the picture.

The Nashville building boom is in full effect despite higher interest rates, higher home prices and a weaker national economy.
It began well before the pandemic-induced mass migration from big cities to smaller, more affordable ones. During the Great Recession after the 2008 financial crisis, workers were looking for an urban vibe but with cheaper housing. At the time, that was Nashville.
“We’ve had a big, big change coming out of 2008, 2009. We had this huge boom that kind of went through in Nashville that kind of phased in and maintained a steady momentum up to really the last three years,” said John Eldridge, CEO of E3 Construction Services, a homebuilding company that operates in the area.
Eldridge began building in Nashville in 2008, just as most national builders had gone underground, smarting from one of the worst housing crashes in history. In just a few years, the Nashville market suddenly took off due to an influx of buyers from the coasts looking for cheaper housing.
Single-family home construction permits jumped nearly 25% in 2015 from the year before, three times the growth rate nationally, according to John Burns Research and Consulting. Eldridge told CNBC he’s still just trying to keep up.

“We don’t currently have any houses that are built, completed, that are for sale, that haven’t been sold,” Eldridge said.

High-rises and high prices

Housing demand in Nashville pulled back some during the first years of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the city ranked in the top 10 for homebuyers looking to relocate to a new metro area in October, with people most commonly moving in from Los Angeles, according to a recent report from Redfin, a national real estate brokerage.
“It’s not just economics. It’s our climate here, it’s our four distinct seasons, it’s our culture here, it’s our location. I mean, we’re within 500 miles of about two-thirds of the population of the United States,” said Eldridge.

Read more about Nashville and CNBC’s Cities of Success

But growth has come with growing pains. After the gold rush, housing has become less and less affordable.
Special education teacher Madison Cartularo, a native New Yorker, moved to Nashville after graduating from college a few years ago.
“Even in the last two years, since I’ve moved here, rent is going up,” she said.
Cartularo was enticed by the strong public school system and the small city feel.
“I knew that after graduating that I wanted something bigger and something more livelier, especially being in my early 20s. I knew that I would want something with a lot of other younger people and a livelier nightlife scene, and I knew that Nashville would offer that to me,” she said.
On a teacher’s budget, she was also looking for something more affordable. That didn’t exactly happen.
After first living with a roommate, Cartularo then moved to a downtown studio apartment and is paying about $1,600 a month in rent.
“I think it’s a lot. I think it’s ridiculous. No one should have to pay that much money. That’s like half of my paycheck,” Cartularo said, adding she wouldn’t be able to afford to live in Nashville without a second job.
If renting is ridiculous, so too is homebuying.
While home prices nationally are up 47% from the start of the pandemic, Nashville prices are up 55%, according to ICE Mortgage Technology. It now takes 44% of the median household income in Nashville to afford the median-priced home, well above the long-time Nashville average of just 23%.
Of the nation’s top 50 housing markets, Nashville ranks 41st for affordability, according to ICE.
“What we’re seeing housing prices and rents go to is very foreign to what they would call affordable,” said Eldridge. “And we also are seeing a cost change, the difference in what it costs us to develop and build things as Nashville has grown, anything from just our land acquisitions, to the actual sticks and bricks, hasn’t done anything except for be a straight line up for the last decade.”

Business is booming

Higher interest rates have made homebuilding harder, and the pace has slowed because of it, but commercial construction downtown is still prolific.
“I think the reason Nashville has done so well recently and why it will continue to do well is it’s a place that employers and employees want to be,” said Janelle Gallagher, first vice president for CBRE in Nashville.
Gallagher has been working in Nashville’s commercial real estate sector since moving to the city over a decade ago. In just the past four years, she has watched the office supply jump 15% despite a slow return to offices nationwide.
“People are coming to the office here. We’re seeing a lot of corporations make big announcements that ‘Our staff needs to come back to office,'” she said.
It’s not just back to office, it’s the influx of new tenant types.
“We’ve got music and entertainment, and that’s certainly part of our history and kind of our culture, but we’re seeing a lot of professional services: law firms, banks, tech, automotive, health care,” Gallagher added.
That has developers putting in more apartment towers downtown as well as retail stores and restaurants to serve them all.
Nashville’s economy may be booming but some say the growth came too quickly, and the city is now paying a price.
“I think for most of us that have been longtime Nashvillians, the congestion and traffic count is infinitely more than it’s ever been,” said Eldridge.
Developers like Eldridge are adding water and sewer lines, but the city is lagging on transportation. Last April, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed the Transportation Modernization Act, a $3.3 billion investment to accommodate the state’s record growth.
TUNE IN: The “Cities of Success” special featuring Nashville will air on CNBC on Dec. 6 at 10 p.m. ET.

Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

A relative newcomer to Hollywood, Angel Studios is breaking the mold.
Turning to a Kickstarter-style method of generating funds, the studio gives its investors an opportunity to purchase shares in the company and its titles.
Its latest film, “The Shift,” was funded by 6,000 investors and arrives in theaters Friday.
Angel Studios famously released the sleeper box office hit “Sound of Freedom” and the popular biblical drama series “The Chosen.”

Neal McDonough stars as a mysterious man known as “the benefactor” in Angel Studio’s “The Shift.”
Angel Studios

“Sound of Freedom” broke the Hollywood mold this summer. Now, the studio behind the surprising smash is looking to follow-up that success with a science fiction thriller based on the Bible’s Book of Job.
Angel Studios is set to release “The Shift” this Friday. The film was crowdfunded by 6,000 investors through the company’s “Angel Guild,” which contributes money to film and television projects its members want to see made or widely distributed.

“It’s a blessing. It really is,” said Brock Heasley, who wrote and directed “The Shift.” “To know that there were 6,000 people out there praying for us, 6,000 people out there who would put, in some cases, what little money they had into this film, because they believed in it that much.”
It took five years and four crowdfunding campaigns to raise $3 million to produce the film. Additional funding was collected from private investors, bringing “The Shift’s” budget to $6.4 million, a small sum by Hollywood standards.
A relative newcomer to Hollywood, Angel Studios uses a Kickstarter-style method of generating funds. It also allows its investors to select which projects they want to fund and gives them the opportunity to purchase shares in the company and its titles. It rose to prominence in 2019, when, under the name VidAngel, it crowdfunded and released hit biblical series “The Chosen.”
“Where else in the world can you have 6,000 people put money into a film that amplifies light?” said Neal McDonough, the prolific character actor (“Captain America: The First Avenger,” “Justified,” “Yellowstone”) who plays the main antagonist in “The Shift.” “Only through Angel Studios. It is just remarkable that that is allowed to happen.”
This community-funding approach has enabled Angel to ensure it is making projects that audiences want to see, guaranteeing viewership on its in-house streaming platform and ticket sales for cinematic releases.

The July release of “Sound of Freedom” raised the studio’s profile even further. The Jim Caviezel-led thriller shook up norms in an industry still trying to find its footing after Covid lockdowns. It snared more than $180 million at the domestic box office during its run, outpacing big studio films such as Warner Bros.’ “The Flash,” on a budget of just $14.5 million. It made nearly $250 million worldwide.
“Movie theaters are always looking for ways to draw additional moviegoers to their big screens and having Angel Studios in the mix is good for the bottom line,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “Innovation and outside the box thinking has put Angel Studios on the map. And with ‘Sound of Freedom’ the company found massive mainstream success while shaking up the status quo, competing head-to-head with the major studios in the hardscrabble summer movie marketplace and came out a winner.”
“Sound of Freedom” isn’t the only Angel Studios title to exponentially overperform its budget. “His Only Son,” a biblical drama released in early 2023, cost $250,000 to make and generated $12.4 million at the box office. A crowdfunding campaign in partnership with Angel Studios raised more than $1.2 million for prints and advertising costs. The small budget, big returns formula is reminiscent of what Blumhouse is doing for the horror genre.

The Devil’s in the details

Kristoffer Polaha and Neal McDonough star in Angel Studios’ “The Shift.”
Angel Studios

“The Shift,” which is loosely based on the “Book of Job,” centers on Kevin (Kristoffer Polaha), a man who recently lost his job and is having marital troubles after the disappearance of his young son. He crosses paths with a mysterious man known only as “the benefactor” (McDonough), who tempts Kevin with wealth and power.
The benefactor, aka the Devil himself, has the ability to “shift” people from one reality to another and promises to reunite Kevin with another version of his wife, if he agrees to work for him. Kevin grapples with whether or not to accept this enticing, yet immoral offer.
“Years ago, faith-based films were all just kind of just one-dimensional,” McDonough said. “[Brock has] created a film that has sci-fi, action, a love story, and talks about how you can be a better human being for God. And whether you’re religious or not, it’s how you can just be a better human being, period. And there aren’t enough films out there in the landscape these days to actually talk about those things.”
“The Shift” is currently seeing “healthy” ticket sales comparable to Angel Studios’ October release “After Death,” which generated $5 million during its opening weekend on its way to a $23.4 million domestic run.
“I do think that there is an audience out there who is looking for something different,” Heasley said. “It’s something that expresses their faith and their values, but that is doing it in a different way. And I think there’s room for it.”

Step into the light

Jim Caviezel stars in Angel Studio’s “Sound of Freedom.”
Angel Studios

Although Angel Studios does not bill itself as a faith-based studio — it says that its content is meant to “amplify light” — much of its content has centered on biblical storytelling. “The Chosen,” a Christian historical drama television series available on Angel’s in-house streaming service as well as on Netflix and NBCUniversal’s Peacock, has become popular and profitable for Angel and has even made the leap to the big screen through Fathom Events.
“The Chosen” has had nearly one billion views and generated more than $100 million, according to the company. Season four is set for release in February.
Soon after, “Cabrini,” a film about the Roman Catholic missionary and future Saint Francesca Cabrini, will hit theaters in March. Then there’s “Bonhoeffer,” which tells the true story of German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who stood up to the Nazis during the Third Reich, later in 2024.
Angel has utilized its audience to reach more moviegoers. The studio has a model it calls “pay it forward,” which allows people buy tickets that can be claimed online for future screenings by those who may not be able to afford them. “Sound of Freedom” saw a significant number of tickets bought through this method. The tickets don’t count towards the film’s box office total until they are claimed.
“Angel Studios has pinpointed a greatly underserved market predominately in faith-based communities, curating and marketing content with them specifically in mind,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com. “It’s always been a bit of a blind spot for the industry, but Angel has honed in on it.”
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of Peacock and CNBC. More