I’ve got bad news about Season 4’s release

hey there it's Dallas and uh we're g to

have a family chat uh there's a lot to

discuss uh including matters of vital

importance and I have always told you

that I'm going to be as upfront with you

as possible uh honest with you at all

times uh sharing as much information as

we're able to share good or bad and yes

unfortunately as is reflected in the

title of this video uh I do have some

bad news to share with you that I'll

share with uh first along with some

details and some questions you've had a

lot of questions about and even some

concerns yes about uh the theatrical and

the release of season 4 in general such

as why why why do we do a theatrical and

why has the streaming uh release been

delayed uh and then also talk about

again how the finances work how all this

works why we're doing things the way

that we have done them uh and why the

situation that we're currently in is

here and then also I do have some good

news for you uh and I do want to give

you uh our plans for the release and for

our long-term future now it is important

that you watch the whole video before

you respond respond or conclude anything

or even complain uh words do matter and

these issues are of vital importance in

fact they couldn't really be more

important about the future of our our

company in this show and they impact not

only season 4 which I know you're very

passionate about you're eager to see it

if you haven't yet as soon as possible

but also our entire long-term future um

you always come first uh the vast

majority of the decisions that we make

are designed with you in mind uh we

always want to get you things as fast as

possible which is why uh this is the the

bad news part of what I'm delivering

which is that we cannot release season

for to streaming now uh and there will

be a delay a delay longer than we

anticipated and hoped for uh there are

some legal matters that we are dealing

with right now that are hopefully being

resolved um and they are in fact uh the

goal is to have them resolved so that we

can long-term and short-term better

serve you uh ensure the show remains

free forever and gets to over a billion

people and also allows us to be

sustainable forever and for the show to

be free forever and for us to serve you

better in every way that we can and we

are in this process not only in the

legal s uh the process that we're going

through but also uh financially and

logistically we are coming up with ways

that we can give this show to you

quicker once this is resolved which I

will share shortly I unfortunately can't

share many more details about the legal

situation uh than I am right now but I

can assure you that it is we are doing

everything in our power to get this

taken care of as soon as possible now I

want to share with you why we're in this

situation um and it's vital for you to

understand it so I'm going to give you a

few facts remember this I've shared this

before but this is important to be

reminded of we don't have a studio or a

network with billions of dollars at

their disposal that they can share with

us and if they see that the show is

starting to get successful they can pour

more into it like what these media

companies tend to do and uh in order for

our show to be free and in order for

come and see uh the nonprofit

organization that helps contribute to

the production and to the translation of

the show in order for them to translate

it into hundreds of languages and for us

to Market this show around the world you

have to be reminded that this costs tens

of millions of dollars minimum every

year even though we are uh our

production costs and our marketing costs

and all that are much lower than the

vast majority of shows that you watch it

is very very expensive to pay Cas and

crew to to raise our production values

each year to make sure that we are uh

keeping up competitively with all the

other shows and movies that are out

there not only for your sake but for our

team um and so movies and television

shows and media is extraordinarily

expensive and so the fact that we don't

have a big Studio or network behind us

to finance all that um you have to also

remember that separate from production

separate from what we do each year just

to make the show itself we have a

company The Chosen we have a company

that has over 60 full-time employees and

that allows us to do our International

efforts our social media and our behind

the scenes our legal our financial we

have a

board we have we have to be SEC

compliant as as you hopefully know

because we are a public company all of

these things just leaving aside the the

the uh the production just to keep our

company going is extraordinarily

expensive and marketing think about the

fact that we have to promote this show

and get eyeballs on it all over the

world that costs millions of dollars

here and around the world um so with all

of that all of those things that you

have to remember that we are responsible

for we a free

show you have the opportunity to watch

the show for free now here are some

sobering facts about the fact that we

want to maintain being a free show but

also want to make sure that we have to

spend and finance all of these

extraordinary efforts that you're seeing

both in production marketing

translations and uh and our social media

and keeping this going and keeping these

eyeballs growing all over the world uh

so here's a few sobering facts number

one we are one of the most watched shows

in the world that's actually the good

part of it that's not sobering that's

great but fewer than 5% of the viewers

pay for it or donate to the cumc

foundation think about that so less than

5% of people all over the world who

watch this show contribute something

financially towards the show now that's

actually in some ways good news it's

sobering but it's actually in some ways

good news because it means that there's

so many people who are getting to watch

the show for free because some people

wouldn't be able to watch it if it

wasn't free if you weren't donating to

come and see if you weren't purchasing

tickets uh to to to see in theaters or

purchasing gifts or any of the other

ways that we somehow are able to

generate income if that wasn't taking

place then these people wouldn't be able

to see it free so it's both good news

and uh sobering news at the same time

here's another sobering fact

a movie released to theaters makes so

much more in one month than we do much

not only in one month but sometimes even

in a year now again let me give you an

example our former partner Angel Studios

released sound of Freedom remember that

movie uh and in the United States alone

it grossed in theaters over $180 million

this is information that you can find

online and total internationally when

you add up everything it was over $250

million in gross receipts that's just in

theaters alone now here's the sobering

fact that movie in theaters alone

generated more gross in just a couple

months than the chosen has ever

generated gross wise in an entire year

and guess what here's what's even more

sobering with a movie the money that

comes in can be kept with us a show

that's multiple Seasons we must keep

spending money that is generated for the

next season as I talk to you right now

we have three more seasons left along

with all the Translating and marketing

and keeping a company going just for

this show

alone think about that so we've done

Four Seasons already but there's three

more to go and all of the things that I

mentioned to you previously just now

about all the costs that we have

continue we can't just take the the the

receipts from a theatrical release or

any kind of release and just go wow that

was successful that's a big profit

that's great it has to keep going so to

be very clear and this is very important

it is extremely expensive to be

free and without us getting creative and

without us without us figuring out ways

to generate income so that we can be

sustainable and profit and you know have

a career our previous path wasn't

proving to be sustainable and so we have

to keep coming up with ways for this to

be sustainable and for you to be able to

see this show free

so just talking about our recent

theatrical release in fact right now you

can still see uh some of the episodes in

theaters bear in mind that just this

alone the theaters get a large chunk of

the grocery seips the distributor gets a

large chunk of the grocery seips and

then when we get a chunk of the grocery

seats that's just a portion of the costs

of our company

alone so when we hear from you sometimes

I've seen a a couple of comments on

social media couple uh that oh you know

the chosen is selling out or they're

doing it just for money this theatrical

release and they're delaying the

streaming they're delaying the free

streaming because they're just trying to

just trying to make as much money as

they can I wish we made enough money on

the theatrical to justify that

accusation now of course I'm being

light-hearted but you just need to

understand the financial and um

logistical ramifications of how all of

this works and

Theatrical as as fun as that has been

and as successful as it has been by by a

lot of objective measurements it's just

one way for us to try to be more

sustainable and for us to be able to try

to keep this show free and keep our

company

going now what's happening right now is

that we are sorting out all of the

things that we can do to get this show

to you as soon as possible for free so

here's the good news I'm going to give

you some of the good news now and what

we're trying to do to make up for this

situation not only in the short term but

the long term now for those of you who

couldn't see it in theaters or who are

overseas now it is in theaters in some

parts overseas but there's a lot of you

who just aren't able to see it in

theaters even if you wanted to but I

know many of you aren't able to see it

even if you wanted to in theaters

because either a you're overseas or B

you can't afford to or you don't live

close enough to the theater now keep in

mind it's not coming as fast as we

wanted to it's the free streaming but it

is coming to the chosen app so bear in

mind it will be coming to the chosen app

as soon as we can and it will be free

forever so I've seen many comments in

addition to what I just talked to you

about where they're saying things like

it's unfair

those of us who can't watch it right now

that's unfair and I hear you and I know

that it's frustrating and I know that it

feels disappointing but hopefully you

can now understand that it costs

hundreds of millions of dollars for this

show to be free for all seven seasons to

be free forever cost hundreds of

millions of dollars so if you do have to

wait a little which I'm not denying is

frustrating and it's frustrating for me

and it's frustrating for our team but I

hopefully think that you can realize

it's it's a relatively small price to

pay uh for that for the fact that you

will eventually be a able to see this

free now number two we are working right

now for season 4 to get to you in the

short term and for this to all be

sustainable in the long term come and

see the nonprofit that is helping

Finance production and translations is

going to be bringing it to churches in

the next week or so so along the bottom

of the screen you can see it's comeand

see.net Church come inc.net church this

is going to actually start March 13th so

you can check out that website for all

the details and for maybe even an

opportunity for you to bring it to your

church but uh side note one thing I want

to mention that Cy is also doing the

same thing in prisons so in prisons all

over the country they're going to get a

chance to see this uh earlier so

somewhat sometime uh and I believe it's

March 13th but sometime during this

month uh there are going to be

opportunities to be able to see uh the

chosen in churches so that's one way

that we are trying to get it out to you

in any way that we can as soon as

possible another thing is we are

extending some of our theatrical

opportuni so keep checking your local

listings and another website I hope

you're taking notes on some of this

stuff uh but along the bottom of the

screen uh The Chosen rise up.com that

has details so you can keep checking

that keep checking your local listings

we are working with the theaters to keep

extending this opportunity to see uh

season 4 and we will be bringing it to

theaters sometime in the near future

hopefully before the end of the month to

just again we're working all this out

right now um but we're bringing it to

you at a discount uh so I know some of

you like well great you're going to

extend in theaters that doesn't help me

much cuz I can't afford to we're going

to again we're trying to get this to you

as soon as we can we're trying to get it

to you as cheap as possible and so uh we

will be bringing it at some point to you

uh at a discount uh so you can have that

opportunity to see it in theaters which

I know that some of you missed like

episodes one through three and then you

wanted to see four through six but you

didn't couldn't catch up on one through

three so we will be offering that

opportunity again keep checking local uh

listings and we will continue to give

you those details now when it does come

to streaming which again I don't want to

be uh light too light-hearted about this

but it is soon I know you hear that word

in the show a lot um so it's going to be

as soon as we possibly can I promise to

give you updates the moment we have them

we will be releasing it faster at a

faster Pace than we've normally done it

in the past so for example last year we

did one live stream per week releasing

it once per week in the app this time

we're going to be doing it twice a week

so we'll be releasing it twice a week in

the chosen app and of course every time

we do a release we do a big live stream

where you can watch it with us and uh we

have this Global event where everyone

gets to watch it discuss it together and

see it at the same time and so uh make

sure if you don't have the chosen app

that you get that now you just look up

The Chosen and it's easy to find and you

get that app that's where you will be

able to watch it free you will be able

to join us on our live streams we'll

also be doing our live streams on social

media but that'll be twice per week we

will be accelerating the release

strategy and the release plans so that

you can be seeing it quicker to try to

make up for this delay we will also be

offering the entire season at once if

you want to do it that way if you don't

want to wait if you just like I just

can't wait for that twice a week thing

on DVD and there will be a paid

streaming option so if you're desperate

to watch the whole thing at once not

wait at all we will be providing you

options to get the entire season at once

and uh so stay tuned for that uh finally

come and see uh you've heard this you've

hopefully heard of uh of that wonderful

foundation and organization in the past

come and see is the nonprofit whose

mission statement includes getting the

chosen to the entire world totally free

and to have it translated in hundreds of

languages they've been doing that

recently they've been doing that

currently and they're going to continue

to do that in the future that will

continue to be the case and if you have

donated to come and see thank you they

wanted to make sure that I passed that

along and once we get past these legal

matters and can focus on keeping it free

forever you can continue to contribute

to that but I wanted to just if nothing

else say thank you for the fact that

we're even in the situation that we're

in which yes has some challenges has

some delays but also uh has some good

news as well

ultimately and in conclusion yes there

is a delay and this is no fun we are as

bothered and urgent as you are no one

wants to get this into your hands more

than we do and faster than we do and yes

we do have to come up with ways to allow

us to be more sustainable and to grow

this show so there sometimes the

longterm conflicts with the

shortterm but the good news does remain

because of come and see we will continue

to be the only show in the world or at

least one of the only shows in the world

I can't think of any others to require

no payment or subscription to watch it

will continue to spread around the world

it will continue to be marketed and

translated so that people in every

country can watch this show and you can

continue to be part of that so remember

as always as I always say at the end of

these it's not your job to feed the

5,000 but it is your and my job to

provide the Loaves and fish what that

means is I'm wearing the shirt right now

five and two is that we do provide our

Five Loaves and two fish we don't always

do it with an outcome in

mind but we do provide our Loaves and

fish and if God chooses to multiply them

and allow them to benefit the entire

world we want to be part of that and

whatever your Loaves and fish are

whether it's buying tickets or gifts

that allow our company to sustain itself

and to continue to grow or it's donating

to come and see so that production and

translations and many of the marketing

efforts can continue or if it's just

praying and spreading the word because

you're unable to do those other things

or in our case producing and marketing

the show and getting it translated and

come and sees case getting all that done

me making the show along with my

team thank you thank you for the Loaves

and fish that you've provided so far and

thank you for the Loaves and fish that

you'll continue provide we're doing this

together and I want to keep doing it

with you so in spite of some of the

unfortunate news that I'm delivering I

hope that you will continue to be

excited excited about the future of the

Chosen and will continue to give you

updates thank you so

much