How Much Did After Death Cost to Make?

The production budget for After Death was not publicly disclosed. The film was financed independently by its production partners and represents years of development that began with a short film called Discovering Heaven in 2017.

After Death (2023) is a feature-length documentary directed by Stephen Gray, produced by Jens Jacob and Jason Pamer under Sypher Studios and G8 Entertainment, and distributed theatrically by Angel Studios. The film takes an unflinching look at near-death experiences through the accounts of survivors, New York Times bestselling authors, medical experts, and scientists. It opened on October 27, 2023 in 2,605 theaters across North America, eventually expanding to 2,730 locations.

What Is Known About the Production of After Death?

Director Stephen Gray began researching near-death experiences after personal tragedy, which led him to seek answers to documented accounts of people who had clinically died and returned. Formal production began on October 2, 2020 during global COVID-19 lockdowns, with the team flying to film interview subjects across the United States and Canada, including Los Angeles, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Houston, Winnipeg, Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Seattle.

Key Production Cost Factors

While the budget was not disclosed, several ambitious production elements contributed to the film's scale:

- International Interview Travel: The core interview phase required flights across multiple cities throughout the US and Canada during the height of COVID restrictions, with the crew traveling between locations to capture each subject in their own environment.

- Baja Studios Stages: Dramatic reenactments were filmed at Baja Film Studios in Mexico, the same facility built by 20th Century Fox for Titanic, and later used for Pearl Harbor, Master and Commander, and Tomorrow Never Dies. Stage 4 housed the car crash sequence with a projector system and practical vehicle with an indoor rain rig.

- Visual Effects: The film included over 200 VFX shots depicting near-death visions of heaven and the void, produced by an international team of VFX artists from California and France. The visual approach was described as cosmic rather than traditional, drawing on nebula imagery and macro photography to depict otherworldly environments.

- Period Production Design: Recreations span multiple eras and international locations, requiring the art department to source era-accurate props, wardrobe, and set dressing for each distinct time period and geography represented in the film.

- Original Score: Composer Hannah Parrott wrote an entirely string-based orchestral score for the film, recorded at Studio X in Seattle. Parrott is an American composer, arranger, and vocalist who has collaborated with celebrated composers James Horner, Thomas Newman, JAC Redford, Michael Boddicker, and Jacob Shea, as well as Grammy-nominated recording engineers Simon Rhodes and Chris James. A rising force in the industry, she most recently worked at Hans Zimmer's Bleeding Fingers Music, partnering with Netflix, National Geographic, the BBC, History Channel, and Discovery Channel. Parrott is known for her work on Southpaw (2015), The Magnificent Seven (2016), and Operation Finale (2018). The score was mixed in Dolby Atmos at Outpost in St. Louis, creating a fully immersive theatrical sound environment.

After Death Box Office Performance

After Death earned $5,051,950 in its opening weekend across 2,605 theaters, representing one of the strongest opens ever for a faith-based documentary. The film went on to gross $11,478,326 domestically and $11,830,860 worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing faith-based documentary of all time and the number one documentary since 2019 at the domestic box office. The film sold over 1 million tickets during its theatrical run, and investors in the prints-and-advertising campaign received a 120% return.

The documentary played in over 2,700 locations at its peak expansion, an extraordinary footprint for a non-fiction title. Audience reception was strong, with a CinemaScore of A- and an 88% Rotten Tomatoes audience score, while critical response was more divided at 50% on the Tomatometer.

After Death Production History

The seed of After Death was planted in 2017 when Stephen Gray produced a short documentary called Discovering Heaven, featuring the story of pilot Captain Dale Black. That short reached producers Jens Jacob and Jason Pamer, who immediately saw the potential for a feature. 'The short blew us away,' Jacob recalled. 'We knew that there was something special there, even past the subject matter, the artfulness of the short.'

The interview format was intentionally designed to separate two categories of subjects: experts, including doctors, scientists, and authors who study near-death experiences, were filmed in settings that evoked their academic or professional environments, while survivors were filmed in spaces that felt personal and domestic.

The editing process was unconventional. Editor Sam built a full assembly cut from the interview days before any reenactment footage existed, effectively using the edit as a previz tool. Producers Jacob and Pamer described it as the best first cut of any film they had ever worked on, saying the team 'was never closer to a final cut' than what came out of the first assembly.

Composer Hannah Parrott approached the score's fundamental challenge, rendering music that survivors describe as unlike anything heard on earth, with creative humility. 'I had to say that I was never going to accomplish that because I believe it's going to be otherworldly and the best thing ever,' Parrott said. 'But what would be my best attempt?' The result was a purely string-based orchestra recorded live at Studio X in Seattle.

Awards and Recognition

After Death received 2 nominations. The film was recognized by faith-based and independent film organizations for its production craft and audience impact.

Critical Reception

After Death holds a 50% critics score and an 88% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, with a CinemaScore of A- from opening weekend audiences. IMDb voters rate it 6.3/10 from nearly 2,000 ratings. The divide between critical and audience response reflects the film's position within the faith-based documentary genre: viewers who came to explore near-death experiences from a spiritual perspective responded with strong enthusiasm, while critics assessed it as a one-sided treatment of a complex subject.

Audience reactions described the film as emotionally overwhelming. 'I left just not knowing what to do with myself,' one viewer said. Others noted its effect on their relationship with mortality: 'It made me feel less afraid of death,' and 'It just made everything I've read in the Bible seem so real.'