Angel Studios has another word of mouth hit on its hands. Drummer Boy, an original musical set during the American Revolution, opened with $9.4 million at the domestic box office, finishing third in its first weekend and beating the modest forecasts that followed it into theaters.
The final tally reached $9,421,843 from 2,850 theaters over three days, according to The Numbers, slightly above the $9.3 million that Sunday estimates had projected. Angel Studios said the opening makes it the studio’s No. 3 live-action release, and that the film outgrossed The Greatest Showman across their respective first three days in theaters.
The numbers behind the debut
The film earned $3,533,127 on Friday and averaged $3,306 per theater for the weekend, The Numbers reported. It kept selling tickets after Sunday, too. Monday added $706,856 and pushed the domestic total to $10,128,699 in four days.
The start was stronger than the industry expected. TheWrap noted that pre-release projections pointed to a launch of about $5 million, and Deadline had reported the film was eyeing a mid-single-digit debut, with roughly $3 million in presales. A $9.4 million opening nearly doubled the low end of those forecasts.
A Revolutionary War musical from a pop duo
Drummer Boy was co-directed by brothers Ben Smallbone and Joel David Smallbone. Joel is one half of for KING + COUNTRY, the four-time Grammy Award-winning duo he forms with his brother Luke, and he also stars in the film as Jeremiah Clem. Lucas Leach plays the young drummer, Benjamin Clem, and India Brown plays Emmaline, an enslaved woman searching for freedom. Ioan Gruffudd, Melora Hardin and Iain Glen round out the cast.
Written by Richard Ramsey, the 96-minute film follows a drummer boy, an enslaved woman and a divided family as the fight for independence begins, weaving its story of faith, forgiveness and freedom around original songs. It is rated PG-13 for war violence and some bloody images. The music traveled beyond the screen: Angel Studios said the soundtrack reached No. 1 as an original musical soundtrack, and that its song “Who I Hope to Be” also hit No. 1. The film also shares its name with the duo’s Christmas album A Drummer Boy Christmas, first released in 2020.
Third place in a monster weekend
The film opened in one of the strongest frames of the fall. Godzilla Minus Zero took first place with the biggest opening ever for a foreign-language live-action film, a debut we covered here, and The Cat in the Hat finished second with about $20 million, according to Variety. All films together grossed about $121.7 million, roughly 40 percent more than the same weekend a year earlier, according to Boxoffice Pro.
Against that competition, Drummer Boy worked as counter-programming: a faith-driven original musical with no franchise behind it, holding its own between two giant studio titles.
Word of mouth is the real prize
Opening-weekend audiences gave the film an A CinemaScore, Deadline and Boxoffice Pro reported, even as critics split down the middle at 50 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Angel Studios put the Rotten Tomatoes audience score at 94 percent. Deadline also noted that 46 percent of the audience was over 55, a crowd that tends to spread recommendations slowly and steadily.
It is the pattern Angel was built on: films that find their audience through word of mouth rather than opening-weekend spectacle. That matters because the film was inexpensive to make. Its production budget was reported at about $10 million, according to The Playlist, which means the first weekend nearly earned back the reported cost of making it. With Veterans Day falling this week and the Thanksgiving holiday ahead, Angel will expect the musical to hold well, following the long-legged pattern of the studio’s earlier releases. Follow the weekend charts and more film news in our Entertainment coverage.