Fandango Steps Into Film Distribution With a Faith‑Based Movie

Fandango just put out its very first movie called House of Worship. The film opened last weekend in about four hundred theaters across the country. It is a faith‑based event that showcases twenty‑five well‑known Christian music artists. The company hopes this will draw in fans who love both movies and gospel tunes.

The movie was executive produced by gospel stars Darlene Zschech and Michael W. Smith. Paul Mabury, a drummer who has won two Grammys, and John Hartley served as producers. Elliott Eicheldinger directed the film. A House of Worship album came out earlier in January. Fandango says the faith‑based audience is responding well, though they are not sharing box‑office numbers. Jerramy Hainline, who leads digital platforms at Versant, calls the theatrical run a one‑year experiment and says the cinema release is just part of a bigger plan.

Fandango started in the year 2000 as a joint venture between big U.S. theater chains and some venture‑capital firms. Comcast bought it in 2007 and Warner Bros Discovery holds a small share. In 2024 the company took over the streaming service formerly known as Vudu, which Comcast had purchased in 2020. After the takeover they dropped the “at Home” label and now everything lives under the single Fandango name, offering free ad‑supported video alongside ticket sales. They are also working on one app that combines ticketing and streaming, and they are linking more closely with sister site Rotten Tomatoes, which already has an app in Canada, the UK and Ireland.

Versant, the division that holds many former NBCUniversal cable channels, is trying to move money away from traditional linear TV. Hainline pointed out that the Golf Channel shows how this can work: they built digital products like Golf Now and Golf Pass, shifting revenue from about eighty‑five percent cable to a fifty‑fifty split. The plan is to copy that model in other areas such as finance with CNBC, news with MS NOW, and entertainment and sports with E! and USA Sports Network. Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes sit in the entertainment slice and the goal is to make them work better together.

Before House of Worship, Fandango had already been testing non‑standard theater shows. They streamed the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris, a tricky project that needed the USOPC, IOC and NBCU to agree. Then they did a white‑out game between Penn State and the University of Washington, a Fortnite pro‑am series with Epic Games at USC’s Galen Center, a deal for the 2026 Milan opening ceremony, and a Spanish‑language World Cup broadcast with Telemundo that proved popular. Those experiments showed there is appetite for varied content, paving the way for the faith‑based film.