Podcast Summary: "Here's How We Beat Disney" | Jordan Harmon, Angel Studios

Making It with Jon Davids, Episode 219
Date: October 10, 2025
Guests: Jon Davids (Host), Jordan Harmon (President & Co-founder, Angel Studios)

Overview

In this episode, Jon Davids sits down with Jordan Harmon, president and co-founder of Angel Studios, for a masterclass in scrappy, values-driven entrepreneurship within the entertainment industry. From starting in a dorm room to challenging Hollywood giants like Disney, Jordan shares how Angel Studios built a $100M+ powerhouse by placing community and disruptive thinking at the center of their model. They discuss pivoting amidst legal battles, how the Sound of Freedom became a cultural phenomenon, and why Angel’s approach flips the standard studio structure—focusing on sustainable “base hits” over flashy one-time successes.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Contrasting Hollywood Excess with Startup Mentality

• Hollywood’s Cash Excess:
  Jordan pokes fun at traditional studios’ bloated hierarchies:
  • “When the chauffeurs have executive assistants, you know there’s excess cash flowing around, man… you walk in, you’re like, I don’t understand what this room of people do!” (00:10, Jordan)
• Startup Scarcity & Grit:
  • “You come from my world, which is like the scrappy startup world. It’s like, guys, we have $100,000 to do everything… We get profit at the end of the day if there’s a profit.” (00:38, Jordan)
    Jon chimes in on the bootstrap hustle:
  • “In the startup world, it’s like I don’t even get a salary. You’re just living off of top Ramen for like 12 months.” (00:53, Jon)

2. Angel Studios’ Origin Story & Legal Challenges

• Starting Out:
  Jordan details Angel's beginnings as VidAngel (four brothers & a cousin, 2012), aiming to build an audience before moving to original content:
  • “The idea was to build an audience large enough that we could then launch into original content.” (01:11, Jordan)
• Major Lawsuit & Forced Pivot:
  Disney, Warner Brothers, and 20th Century Fox sued over VidAngel’s filtering technology, pushing the team to pivot sooner than expected:
  • “We got a fat lawsuit… The studios didn’t love that.” (01:19, Jordan)
  • “We had to pivot to our original plan…build up a large audience and then do original content. But we had to pivot to it earlier than we were expecting.” (01:30, Jordan)
• Mission Shift:
  The focus shifted from just tech to creating an original-content studio, officially launching Angel Studios in 2016.

3. Redefining “Faith Content” and Mainstream Values

• Breaking Stereotypes:
  Jordan addresses the misconception that Angel serves a narrow “faith niche”—instead, they focus on quality, broad appeal, and family values:
  • “The entertainment space has done a really good job of creating this false dichotomy around faith-based content as a niche product, when in reality, 95% of the world is faith-leaning.” (02:33, Jordan)
  • “We want to create the same quality of storytelling… but do it with the values that represented what we felt was good for the world and for our families.” (02:59, Jordan)
  • “We don’t even consider ourselves a quote unquote faith studio… we’re an American independent studio who happens to be faith friendly.” (03:23, Jordan)
• Audience-Led vs. Propaganda:
  They avoid “in your face” messaging often seen in both Hollywood and faith-based films, aiming instead for subtlety and resonance:
  • “A lot of people have been rejecting Hollywood with the propaganda they’re shoving into their stories. The same goes for… faith content where you get someone that’s more of a sermon and less of an entertainment movie.” (03:41, Jordan)
  • Mission statement: “Our mission is to tell stories that amplify light.” (03:54, Jordan)

4. Sound of Freedom: From Shelved to Smash Hit

• Background:
  The Sound of Freedom, nearly lost under Disney’s acquisition, was rescued and distributed by Angel.
  • “Warner Brothers had originally greenlit it… But it apparently had gotten shelved [by Disney]… The producers finally got it out of Disney and were trying to find a path to distribution.” (05:53, Jordan)
• Angel Guild’s Role:
  Angel’s community-driven greenlighting process de-risks decisions:
  • “We’ve built what’s called the Angel Guild, which is a community of over 360,000 people… they actually help us pick what we distribute and get out into the world as a studio.” (06:32, Jordan)
  • “Every film and TV show… has to first get greenlit by the Angel Guild, the community. Now we take a random sampling… to statistical significance.” (06:51, Jordan)
• Unique Business Model:
  Instead of taking profit up front, Angel only profits if the project succeeds—aligning incentives with creators:
  • “We have an incentive structure where we don’t make any margin on distributing and marketing the project. We make margin when we both win together with our producing partners.” (06:25, Jordan)
• Why Sound of Freedom Was a No-Brainer:
  Despite industry skepticism—topic, release date, budget—Angel bet big on Guild feedback:
  • “Everybody’s like, should we distribute this? It’s child sex trafficking, no one wants to watch a movie about that… But for us, it was a no-brainer. The Guild said they wanted it.” (08:02, Jordan)
• Lightning-Fast Acquisition:
  • “Within five days, we had gotten a distribution agreement… If anybody knows this industry, five days to lock in a worldwide distribution deal is absolutely a miracle.” (08:53, Jordan)
• Strategic, Risky Release:
  Released on July 4, bucking industry wisdom—Angels’ team leaned into the theme of independence and rescue:
  • “We felt strongly that we had a movement that we could rally behind July 4th… Independence Day and trying to get independence for these children who are being trafficked.” (09:34, Jordan)
• Blockbuster Outcome, Sustainable Philosophy:
  • “Within less than three months we put together an entire campaign… and it just took on a life of its own and did over a quarter billion in the box office…” (09:54, Jordan)
  • “We couldn’t care less if Angel has another Sound of Freedom because we have a sustainable business model for base hits. The World Series is won by base hits. It’s not won by home runs.” (10:18, Jordan)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Hollywood excess:
  “When the chauffeurs have executive assistants, you know there’s excess cash flowing around, man…”
  — Jordan Harmon (00:10)
• On scrappy entrepreneurship:
  “You’re just living off of top Ramen for like 12 months.”
  — Jon Davids (00:53)
• On the lawsuit that changed everything:
  “We got a fat lawsuit from Disney, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox…”
  — Jordan Harmon (01:19)
• On the real size of the “faith audience”:
  “95% of the world is faith-leaning… 95% of stories should have some element of faith in them.”
  — Jordan Harmon (02:33)
• On Angel’s mission:
  “Our mission is to tell stories that amplify light.”
  — Jordan Harmon (03:54)
• On data-driven greenlighting:
  “They actually help us pick what we distribute and get out into the world as a studio… we know that the audience already loves the product. We’re not guessing.”
  — Jordan Harmon (06:32, 06:57)
• On the Sound of Freedom’s overnight deal:
  “Five days to lock in a worldwide rights distribution deal is absolutely a miracle.”
  — Jordan Harmon (08:53)
• On “base hit” strategy:
  “The World Series is won by base hits. It’s not won by home runs.”
  — Jordan Harmon (10:18)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:10 – 01:01: Hollywood luxury vs. startup scrappiness
• 01:07 – 01:45: Angel Studios’ founding story and legal battles
• 02:02 – 04:19: Misconceptions about ‘faith-based’ content, disruptive audience-led mission
• 05:15 – 05:24: Context around Sound of Freedom’s success
• 05:45 – 08:00: How Sound of Freedom landed at Angel, the Angel Guild process
• 08:53 – 10:18: Lightning-fast acquisition and blockbuster release strategies
• 09:54 – 10:18: Reflection on sustainable, not singular, successes

Episode Takeaways

• Disrupting Hollywood requires both values and operational innovation.
• Serving “underserved” audiences doesn’t mean small scale—it means massive potential.
• Building community-led businesses takes more work, but protects against industry volatility.
• Sustainable success comes from steady, data-backed “base hits,” not chasing off-chance phenoms.

Angel Studios’ story is a blueprint for how audience-first thinking, lean operations, and authentic values can not only challenge—but sometimes even beat—entrenched giants like Disney.