Angel Studios’ ‘After Death’ Soars with Top 5 Opening, Beats Disney Documentaries
- Michael Foust Crosswalk Headlines Contributor
- Updated Nov 03, 2023
The latest movie from Angel Studios impressed audiences in its first weekend and soared at the box office, too, finishing in the Top 5 as it enjoyed one of the most successful openings in documentary film history.
After Death (PG-13) finished No. 4 at the box office with a gross of $5,051,950, making it the 12th-most successful documentary movie of all time on an opening weekend and placing it ahead of such Disney documentaries as Born in China (2017), Bears (2014), Penguins (2019) and Monkey Kingdom (2015), according to The Numbers. It also topped the opening grosses of such well-known titles as Tupac Resurrection (2003), Religulous (2008) and Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (2008).
The film explores stories of near-death experiences.
“This weekend, the success of After Death underscores cinema's vital role as a powerful communal space for pondering profound questions, igniting the deepest yearnings, and fostering collective hope,” said Brandon Purdie, executive vice president of global theatrical distribution for Angel Studios.
After Death also earned an A- CinemaScore grade from moviegoers.
Angel Studios is the same company that released the blockbuster hit Sound of Freedom this summer.
The film includes testimonies from doctors and experts as well as from individuals who say they briefly visited heaven when their heart stopped beating due to a tragic accident or medical condition. One of those is Don Piper, a minister who was involved in a horrific car crash in 1989 and says he visited heaven.
The movie, he said, is evangelistic.
“This movie is the get-people-into-heaven movie,” Piper told Christian Headlines. “At the very least, it's a conversation starter. But at the very most, it's somebody's first step into the glory of God.”
Dr. Michael Sabom, a cardiologist and author of multiple books on the subject, says in the film he was skeptical of near-death experiences until he began studying them. He became convinced that they may be real.
Some people, he says in the film, enjoy heaven so much that they “don’t want to go back” to Earth.
Related: 4 Things You Should Know about ‘After Death,’ the Latest Movie from Angel Studios
Photo Courtesy: ©Angel Studios; used with permission.
Video Courtesy: Angel Studios via YouTube
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
