Angel Studios, the group behind the cultural sensation The Sound of Freedom, is about to create another box office success with its upcoming movie King of Kings. 

Inspired by Charles Dickens, the film will follow Dickens as he walks his son, Walter, through the life of Jesus Christ. The film looks to be visually stunning, and has a full-blown star-studded cast, including Oscar Isaac as Jesus, Kenneth Branagh as Dickens, Forest Whitaker as Peter, Pierce Brosnan as Pontius Pilate and... Mark Hamill as King Herod. 

Hamill's inclusion hasn't seemed to have slowed ticket sales at all. According to Deadline, King of Kings' pre-sale numbers are already surpassing The Prince of Egypt:

Angel Studios‘ family pic The King of Kings has already clocked $14.6M in pre-sales and could wound up outstripping DreamWorks Animation’s The Prince of Egypt ($14.5M) as the best opening ever for an animated Biblical movie. One million tickets have been presold further boosted by Angel’s “Kids go Free” campaign which allows one free kid’s ticket with each adult ticket purchase.

King of Kings opens in more than 3,200 locations nationwide this weekend. We already told you that King of Kings presales from earlier this week stood at $7.8M surpassing that of Angel Studio’s biggest hit, Sound of Freedom. (That movie had a different kind of opening, bowing on Tuesday July 4 and earning $41.6M in its first six days and $19.6M over the weekend, booming toward an $184.1M domestic haul.)

Rumors abound that it's already far surpassed Disney's Snow White live-action movie pre-sale numbers, which some estimate to be at around $3 to $5 million based on its Thursday opening numbers of $3.5 million. 

One thing that should be understood about the pre-sale numbers of King of Kings is that Angel Studios has a "pay it forward" program, where people can buy tickets for others as gifts, which is likely going to inflate the pre-sale numbers for this film. For reference to how much it could inflate the numbers, Angel Studios reported that nine percent of its total box office for Sound of Freedom came from the program, which potentially means that around $1.31 million came from pre-sale gifted tickets. However, being a family film, I can imagine the program was utilized in greater capacity.  

But it needs to be understood that this is real money paid for by real people. There are no phantom ticket purchases here. 

Moreover, Angel Studios hopes this film will have staying power. Just like Die Hard on Christmas, Angel Studios wants King of Kings to be something brought out for viewing every Easter, meaning it may very well find its way back into select theaters every year. 

“Charles Dickens had a tradition of sharing this story with his family, and we hope that The King of Kings will become a part of the Easter tradition for families around the globe,” said Brandon Purdie, Global Head of Theatrical Distribution & Brand Development at Angel.

I expect this to be a major box office hit, but if it is, will Hollywood learn that what people really want isn't slop but something far more meaningful and — dare I say — Christ-centric?

I won't hold my breath.