Angel Studios to Appeal after Arbitration Loss to ‘The Chosen’

Angel Studios announced on Thursday that it plans to appeal an arbitration ruling that favored The Chosen in a legal dispute involving the two faith-based entertainment companies. The statement from Neal Harmon, CEO of Angel Studios, was released one day after Dallas Jenkins, founder and director of The Chosen, revealed that The Chosen, Inc. had won its arbitration with Angel and that Season 4 would begin streaming Sunday, June 2. Jenkins also said that “The Chosen’s relationship with Angel Studios is effectively over.”

The multi-year dispute involves an alleged breach of contract. Angel Studios launched The Chosen prior to the pandemic.

“The team at Angel Studios is honored to have been instrumental in the founding and unbelievable growth of The Chosen,” Harmon said in a statement. “Our long hours of hard work over the last 8 years by teams of programmers, marketers, translators, licensing experts, and innovators have helped it become the worldwide success that it is today.

“Sadly, The Chosen, Inc. chose to terminate its agreement with us,” Harmon added. “We hope that one day the agreement will be restored — and we plan to pursue the appeal provision that Angel and The Chosen agreed to as the process for resolving disagreements privately.”

The statement “asks fans to continue to support the goal of bringing The Chosen to one billion people around the world.” It also lists the impact Angel has had on The Chosen.

“Since the release of that Season One, Angel Studios has sent $115,189,337.27 in royalties to The Chosen,” Angel’s statement said.

Further, the statement said Angel “built an audience of over 106 million people worldwide and over half a billion views of The Chosen episodes,” “invented the Pay-It-Forward business model,” “completed professional dubbing in 11 languages” and licensed The Chosen “to 100+ worldwide distribution partners and streaming platforms in 27 countries.”

Jenkins, in a livestream this week, credited Angel for launching the series and said the two sides had reached an impasse. Jenkins and those at The Chosen say Angel breached a 2022 agreement; Angel disagrees.

“The Chosen would not have launched without some of the ideas, initiatives and extraordinary efforts of the Harmon brothers,” Jenkins said. “… “I want to thank Angel and the Harmon brothers for their extraordinary efforts in helping launch this show.”

Related: The Chosen Releases Season 4 Streaming Date

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.

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