In 2017, a company VidAngel filed for bankruptcy. By 2025, reborn as Angel Studios, they've built something unprecedented: a film studio where audiences—not executives—choose what gets made. This March, they proved their model by raising $55 million in just 18 days, entirely from their own fans.

The secret? They've inverted the traditional Hollywood playbook. Instead of guessing what audiences want, they let 1.5 million paying subscribers vote on every project. Rather than relying on traditional distribution, they've built direct relationships with viewers who pre-fund films they want to see. And in place of standard studio deals, they offer filmmakers transparent profit-sharing and creative freedom.

The model looks like this:

Let’s explore it in more detail.