Angel Studios bans nudity, sex scenes, profanity in sweeping new 'Angel Promise'

Angel Studios, the faith-friendly entertainment company behind box office hits like "Sound of Freedom" and "The King of Kings," is setting permanent content standards designed to protect its family-friendly mission for generations, with co-founder Jeff Harmon warning that the company must avoid becoming another Hollywood studio as it grows.

Harmon, Angel's co-founder and chief content officer, said the newly announced "Angel Promise" is intended to ensure that the company's commitment to values-driven storytelling survives long after its founders are gone.

"We're trying to build a 100-year-plus company," Harmon told The Christian Post. "How do we make sure that in 50 years to 100 years this thing doesn't just go off the rails and become Hollywood rather than blazing its own path?"

The initiative establishes three commitments: giving the company's approximately 3 million Angel Guild members final approval over its films and television series, prohibiting certain sexual and profane content, and introducing expanded parental controls that allow families to make informed viewing decisions.

Under the new standards, films and series must receive a score of at least 70 out of 100 from Angel Guild members to qualify for distribution through the company's entertainment ecosystem.

Additionally, future films and series cannot depict nudity or sexual acts on screen or include the F-word. Angel also pledges not to release original films or series that misuse God's name, while prohibiting profanity in titles submitted for children age 12 and younger.

The company defines misuse of God's name as irreverent or profane use, while allowing sincere, reverent or devotional references across religious traditions.

According to Harmon, a father himself, Angel also plans to expand parental controls within its streaming app, using Guild-generated age recommendations and plain-language story notes to help parents make informed viewing decisions.

"A PG-13 rating from the MPA isn't precise enough for families seeking values-based entertainment," Harmon said in the company's announcement. "Our Guild tells parents what's actually in a film, and our parental controls let each family decide what plays in their home."

Harmon said the restrictions aren't intended to prevent filmmakers from exploring difficult subjects; the company debated which restrictions should remain permanent and which might need to evolve.

"There are so many stories that fit in the values-based and family market that there are unlimited stories within the boundaries we've set," he told CP, adding that restrictions on profanity aside from the Lord’s name in vain could be revisited as cultural norms change.

The announcement comes amid significant growth for the Provo, Utah-based company, which has emerged as a major player in faith-based and independent entertainment.

Founded in 2013 by the Harmon brothers, who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Church, Angel has attracted a predominantly values-oriented audience that includes Evangelical Christians and families seeking alternatives to mainstream Hollywood entertainment.

Its 2023 release "Sound of Freedom," starring Jim Caviezel, grossed approximately $250 million worldwide, becoming one of the year's biggest independent film successes. Angel followed with releases including "Cabrini,""The King of Kings" and "David," further establishing its presence in the theatrical marketplace.

Angel became a publicly traded company in September 2025, and its Guild surpassed 3 million paying members in September of this year, doubling from 1.5 million just over a year earlier. 

Harmon attributed much of the company's growth to its unusual business model, which allows paying Guild members to screen potential projects, provide feedback and vote on which titles should move forward. In contrast, Hollywood traditionally allows a relatively small number of executives to control which stories reach audiences.

"In Hollywood, you have a dozen people who make decisions about 95 percent of the content," he said. "There's just this tiny, tiny group of people who are the gatekeepers. … I trust our 3 million Guild members more than I trust myself in picking what movies are going to work.”

Responding to concerns that audience approval could restrict artistic freedom, Harmon contended that commercial filmmaking has always operated within certain limitations. Currently, more than 100 projects are being evaluated by Guild members, with filmmakers receiving feedback about audience engagement, including where viewers lose interest.

Harmon also criticized what he described as Hollywood's growing disconnect from ordinary American families: "I think Hollywood lives in a bubble," he said. "When you're not your audience, you can get disconnected from them. … The filmmaker's job is to figure out signal. Our job is to get them as close to the viewer as possible, particularly the values-audience viewer."

Despite Angel's association with Christian entertainment, Harmon emphasized that the company is not exclusively focused on religious programming. Last year, the company came under fire for releasing an animated adaptation of “Animal Farm” featuring transgender-identified actor Laverne Cox as one of the voice actors.

"We're values-based, meaning our focus is the values audience, which is a very broad, massive audience," he said. "It's more like old Disney, but a subset of the values audience is the faith audience, and we do faith better than any studio out there."

“[We do want] filmmakers producing explicitly religious projects to view Angel as a natural distribution partner,” he said. “Filmmakers can know if I'm into faith content, Angel can be my home because we do that the very best. We are faith friendly."

The new standards are also part of a broader effort by Angel's founders to protect the company's mission through structural safeguards.

In July, co-founders Neal and Jeffrey Harmon transferred more than 10 million super-voting shares into the Angel Mission Trust, an irrevocable arrangement designed to preserve the company's independence and values beyond the founders' lifetimes.

Harmon told CP that the trust places more than 100 million votes under a structure intended to keep the company aligned with its founding principles.

"Those shares cannot be reversed," he said. "Those shares' entire job is to make sure that Angel stays on mission over the generations, rather than just during our lifetimes."

He also said the Guild has helped direct nearly $300 million in royalties to filmmakers, giving viewers a degree of influence over entertainment financing historically reserved for wealthy investors.

"Even though you're only paying in 20 bucks a month, you are essentially getting to take the role that used to be reserved just for billionaires," Harmon said. "This is the only time in history that a major Hollywood studio or a top 10 studio in the United States has given a veto right to the audience. If the Angel Guild votes it out, it doesn't come on the system. That's never happened."

"We have a very unique opportunity," he said.