The Legacy of Firsts - Artistic and More...
They successfully produced a scene that lasted over 15 minutes, with multiple actors, with no edits. I asked a colleague from the media department in the college where I work about the complexities of this. They were under the impression that it was impossible to do. At most, two or three actors, at most 5 minutes. I guess God does impossible cinematography too!
The Chosen has a considerable fan base which endeavours to support the show's production, having crowdfunded the subsequent seasons. They have also been responsible for writing and translating the subtitles into multiple languages.
Covid and More Impossible Maths
In 2020, as Hollywood locked down, The Chosen opened wide. Dallas and Angel Studies decided to release Season 1 on YouTube so a wider audience could see the show. As fear and uncertainty gripped the world, a positive message was what they felt was needed. And with so many people turning to streaming services to 'binge-watch' tv shows, they decided to make the show 100% accessible to all for free. They expected to take a significant hit on the costs of streaming the show online and via The Chosen App, their independent App for watching it on mobile devices.
Again, more impossible Math! The numbers contributing to crowdfunding future episodes went up. The App spread far and wide, proving especially popular in countries where traditional Christian media is restricted or forbidden. At one point, The Chosen App was the most downloaded in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Chosen is also extremely popular in China and growing in viewership around The World, with over half a billion views. And in the USA, these same fans helped The Chosen make cinema history.
In 2020, the filming of Season Two began due to the increased funding. Two thousand fans signed up as extras for The Sermon on The Mount, with only a handful of people testing positive for Covid. The Chosen was one of the relatively few productions being made during the pandemic. This was repeated during Season Three when 10,000 fans descended on Texas to film The Feeding of the 5000!
Rarely since the 50s and 60s did Hollywood even try and produce large crowd scenes with live extras. Yet here was a streaming tv show doing just that. The chance to see thousands of real people (all fans) would be, and was, an incredible sight to experience, with fans calling for more episodes to be released in cinemas.
Box Office Success
During Christmas 2020, a Special "Christmas with The Chosen" was streamed with The Chosen showing clips from Season Two and The Shepherd, along with musical artists. In 2021, a 20-minute special was made called "The Messengers" in absolute secrecy, telling the story of Christmas from the perspective of Mary and Joseph. It featured the actors who played Mary and Joseph in The Shepherd.
The decision was taken to pre-release it at a limited number of cinemas across the USA. This a bold action with some considerable financial risks on behalf of The Chosen and Fathom Theaters. After all, this was a streaming TV Show, and rarely did TV attempt to dabble in cinemas.
"Christmas with The Chosen – The Messengers" became Fathom Theaters' highest-grossing debut to that date. Making over $13 million over that weekend alone. The fans came through. The Chosen signed an agreement that this show would not be released for free on The App until it had run for at least a week in US cinemas. Of course, by this time, The Chosen had caught the attention of mainstream media and Dallas, the musical artists and many actors were appearing on Fox TV, Good Morning America and many other news outlets. It was into December before Fathom agreed to release The Chosen's hit special to the rest of the world.
This was a key event for the decision to put Episodes 1 & 2, their long-awaited third Season, in cinemas and showings in 4 other native English-speaking countries. Season 3 opened with a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount and ended in Episodes 7 and 8 with The Feeding of the Five Thousand, also shown in cinemas in 2023.
These cinema releases were not without their downsides, Having the latest Marvel - Black Panther - release hitting the screens with episodes 1 & 2, and James Cameron's long-awaited Avitar 2, Not even the Chosen expected to be Number One, but in a climate of movie competition, 2nd and 3rd spot across the USA, for a TV show, showing their regular episodes would have sent a clear message to the Hollywood Elites to take Christian media seriously.
And for Dallas Jenkins, I feel personally glad. After being written off by Hollywood, he has had three productions within the top 3 of the US box office. Not a single naked lady or violent murder for the sake of violence in either of them!
Keep going, Dallas! We look forward to God doing great things with The Chosen in Season 4!
