Daniel and the Fiery Furnace opens Friday in more than a thousand U.S. theaters, with Thursday previews already listed at Harkins, Cinemark, and on Fandango.
The Kooman brothers got there without Angel and without Come and See. The film’s own site names EKKL Entertainment as distributor, though several chains still list Emick Media instead.
Matthew and Daniel Kooman told American Family Radio last week that they financed the picture through a crowdfund, then kept those backers in the booking fight. “By going through a crowdfund, we were able to engage a really excited core group of people to become fans and investors at the same time,” Matthew said on At the Core. Those backers form a list, and they are not Angel’s list or a Come and See church file. Unveil is a Vancouver Island shop named, Daniel said, after 2 Corinthians: an unveiled face looking at glory.
They shot for nearly a month in India. On the day they filmed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refusing the statue, Matthew said they had “idol worship all around us.” The line will travel in church emails. The booking question is colder: a thousand screens can look like a real circuit until the only people who know the title are the people who already paid to make it.
The cast is the other proof of scale. Mena Massoud, the Egyptian-Canadian lead from Aladdin, plays Daniel. Elijah Alexander, who has been on The Chosen, plays Nebuchadnezzar. Travis Mann, a producer on I Can Only Imagine, is aboard. Michael W. Smith is an executive producer. PG-13, 1 hour 48 minutes, live action. Canadian dates are narrower: Unveil says about 30 Landmark cities, with tickets on sale there since September 13.
Trade charts will call this a theatrical opening because the rooms have ticket printers, which is fair and still incomplete. Church screens still decide whether a faith title actually opened, and this one is not being sold as a sanctuary exclusive. If Friday is loud in Dallas and quiet in the suburbs that only show up for Angel, the thousand-screen number was a dare.
The scripture is the one everyone already knows. Three men, one decree, a furnace. The news is the distribution: a Canadian Bible picture asking American exhibitors to treat it like a studio Friday. Tickets are on sale. The rooms will answer by Sunday.
Daniel and the Fiery Furnace is a title this desk is watching. Windows, studios, and the rest of the slate live on Upcoming.
