Daniel and the Fiery Furnace Budget

What Is the Budget of Daniel and the Fiery Furnace?

Daniel and the Fiery Furnace (2026), co-written and co-directed by brothers Matthew Kooman and Daniel Kooman and distributed by EKKL Entertainment, has no production budget disclosed by its producers. Pinnacle Peak Pictures, Unveil Studios and EKKL, the three companies credited on the film, have not released a total cost figure, which is common for independently financed faith-based releases that never go through a studio's public disclosure process.

What is publicly documented is how a meaningful share of the production was raised. Multiple outlets reported that the Kooman brothers ran one of the more successful recent faith-based film crowdfunding campaigns, raising approximately $1,200,000 toward the production. That figure describes money raised through the campaign, not a studio-confirmed total budget, since Pinnacle Peak and EKKL are established production and distribution partners that may have supplied additional financing beyond the crowdfunded amount.

Independent faith-based dramas vary enormously in budget, from six-figure microbudgets to productions in the tens of millions. Without an official number for this film, the closest anchor is the $1,200,000 crowdfunding campaign that funded a meaningful part of its production, which places its baseline financing at the low end of the genre even before any additional support from its distributor.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

With no disclosed total, there is no allocation table to reproduce. What the production record does show is where a Bible-era epic shot largely overseas concentrated its resources:

• International Location Photography: The production shot on location in India, including scenes at a roughly 600 year old fort and palace near New Delhi built by the architect of the Taj Mahal, in place of building elaborate ancient-world sets from scratch.
• Below-the-Line Crew Based Overseas: Cinematographer Supratim Bhol and production designer Ranjit Singh led the below-the-line departments on location, keeping key department heads local to where principal photography took place rather than flying an entire unit in.
• Above-the-Line Cast: Mena Massoud, known for Aladdin, stars as Daniel and also produced the film, and Elijah Alexander, known for The Chosen, plays King Nebuchadnezzar. Two recognizable names anchor the marketing without the cost of a full ensemble of A-list stars.
• Crowdfunded Financing: Rather than a single studio backer, the Koomans raised approximately $1,200,000 directly from supporters in one of the more successful recent faith-based film crowdfunding campaigns. A direct-to-audience raise changes the cost structure by removing a distributor's development and financing fees from the budget.
• Combined Writer-Director-Producer Roles: Matthew Kooman and Daniel Kooman wrote, directed and produced the film together, and Mena Massoud produced in addition to starring. Concentrating writing, directing and producing credits inside the same small group of people is a standard way an independent production keeps above-the-line fees from multiplying.

How Does Daniel and the Fiery Furnace's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

Because no total budget has been disclosed for Daniel and the Fiery Furnace, the comparison below is anchored to its one public financing figure, the $1,200,000 crowdfunding raise, set against other faith-based releases with confirmed numbers:

• His Only Son (2023): Budget $250,000 | Worldwide $13,817,186. The clearest evidence that a faith-based drama can return many multiples of a sub-seven-figure budget, the same range Daniel and the Fiery Furnace's crowdfunding base falls into.
• Sound of Freedom (2023): Budget $14,500,000 | Worldwide $250,600,000. Shows the ceiling for the genre when a mid-budget faith-adjacent thriller crosses into the mainstream, a scale well beyond what a $1,200,000 crowdfunding campaign alone could finance.
• Jesus Revolution (2023): Budget $15,000,000 | Worldwide $52,300,000. A studio-backed biblical-era drama at roughly twelve times the crowdfunded portion of Daniel and the Fiery Furnace's financing, illustrating the gap between a fully studio-financed production and a crowdfunded one.
• Unsung Hero (2024): Budget $6,000,000 | Worldwide $21,200,000. A faith-based drama financed largely by its own subjects rather than a traditional studio, the closest financing parallel: a project the people behind it funded substantially themselves before finding wide distribution.
• Sight (2023): Budget $6,000,000 | Worldwide $7,208,803. A biographical faith drama at roughly five times Daniel and the Fiery Furnace's crowdfunded base that still fell short of a wide commercial breakout, a caution against assuming faith audiences guarantee outsized returns.

Daniel and the Fiery Furnace Box Office Performance

Daniel and the Fiery Furnace opened in 1,525 theaters across the United States on September 18, 2026, in a wide release frame that also included Resident Evil's expansion. Per Box Office Mojo's Sunday estimates, the film earned $3,140,000 domestically over its opening weekend, charting on the national box office top ten while trailing the weekend's biggest wide releases.

The entire tracked gross so far is domestic. EKKL Entertainment has not reported an international release for the film, so the worldwide and domestic totals are currently identical. A $3,140,000 opening across 1,525 locations works out to roughly $2,059 per theater, a modest average for a wide release but a reasonable one for a faith-based drama competing the same weekend against several other faith and family titles already in the marketplace, as Deadline's specialty box office coverage noted. Any home video or streaming revenue beyond the theatrical run is not yet public.

A per-dollar return cannot be calculated for Daniel and the Fiery Furnace, because neither its producers nor its distributor has disclosed a production budget or a total investment figure to measure the $3,140,000 gross against.

Daniel and the Fiery Furnace Production History

Daniel and the Fiery Furnace originated with brothers Matthew Kooman and Daniel Kooman, who wrote and co-directed the film and produced it alongside star Mena Massoud and producer Travis Mann, with Ashley Bratcher credited as consulting producer. The film retells the opening chapters of the Book of Daniel, following Daniel and his three friends, later known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, from the fall of Jerusalem through their rise in King Nebuchadnezzar's court to the trial in the furnace that gives the film its title.

Rather than financing the production through a single studio partner, the Koomans ran a direct crowdfunding campaign that raised approximately $1,200,000, reported as one of the more successful recent faith-based film crowdfunding efforts. Pinnacle Peak Pictures, Unveil Studios and EKKL Entertainment came aboard as production and distribution partners, with EKKL handling the theatrical release.

Principal photography took place largely on location in India, including scenes filmed in and around New Delhi at a roughly 600 year old fort and palace originally built by the architect of the Taj Mahal. Cinematographer Supratim Bhol and production designer Ranjit Singh, both based in India, led the below-the-line departments on the international shoot.

The film was released theatrically in the United States and Canada on September 18, 2026, distributed by EKKL Entertainment in 1,525 theaters, part of a wider wave of biblical-era dramas reaching American screens in the mid-2020s.

Awards and Recognition

Daniel and the Fiery Furnace has not received any awards or festival selections. The film went directly to a wide theatrical release on September 18, 2026, without a festival run preceding it. As a biblical-era drama reaching theaters during a season when faith-and-family-oriented awards shows such as the Movieguide Awards and the K-LOVE Fan Awards make their selections, it may become eligible for consideration in the year following release, but no nominations had been announced as of this writing.

Critical Reception

Reviews for Daniel and the Fiery Furnace were mixed in its opening week. Coverage from outlets including Christianity Today, Plugged In and The Epoch Times weighed the film's handling of its biblical source material, while general-audience critics were more divided than the faith press. Jubileecast, surveying early reactions on opening day, described critics as split over whether the film generates enough dramatic tension to sustain its run time.

A recurring point across reviews was pacing: several critics noted that the first half of the film introduces a large cast of characters and plot threads without enough setup, making the opening stretch harder to follow, while the furnace sequence itself was more consistently singled out as the film's strongest and most emotionally effective passage. Faith-oriented outlets were broadly positive about the film's treatment of its source material, and reporting on audience reaction pointed to a strong turnout among churchgoing audiences on opening weekend, consistent with the grassroots, faith-based distribution strategy EKKL Entertainment used to open the film in 1,525 theaters.

As of this writing, no aggregated critic score from Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic had gathered enough reviews to be considered reliable, and no CinemaScore grade has been reported for the film. Given how recently it opened, on September 18, 2026, its critical standing is likely to firm up over the following weeks as more reviews are published.