‘Young Washington’ Marches Into Theaters July 4 Weekend – Specialty Preview
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- Angel Studios opens Young Washington wide on 2,700 screens for July 4 weekend, timing the release to the 250th anniversary of the U.S. and leaving it as the only new indie in an otherwise quiet frame.
- William Franklyn-Miller stars as the young George Washington, a 23-year-old British officer whose disastrous campaign against the French in Ohio tests his honor, loyalty and courage as his career takes off.
- Jon Erwin, director of faith-based films I Can Only Imagine and Jesus Revolution, directs the PG-13 film with Mary-Louise Parker as Washington's mother, Ben Kingsley as Virginia Gov. Robert Dinwiddie, and Kelsey Grammer as Lord Fairfax.
- The film is a co-production between Angel Studios and Wonder Project, timed as a patriotic tentpole — one reader has already commented on the site calling it "a religious movie."
- Competing specialty titles in the same frame include Music Box Films' 4K restoration of Ross McElwee's Sherman's March at Film Forum, Kino Lorber's Mary Oliver documentary at IFC Center, and Fathom Entertainment's 85th-anniversary Citizen Kane rerelease at about 900 theaters on July 5 and July 8.
Why it matters: Angel Studios is giving Young Washington a 2,700-screen wide release — an unusually large footprint for any specialty title — making it the lone new indie in an otherwise thin July 4 frame. With director Jon Erwin's faith-based track record (I Can Only Imagine, Jesus Revolution) and Angel's own distribution lineage, the production's ideological DNA is now inseparable from its patriotic box-office pitch.
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