Great American Media's Christmas Gambit: More Than Just a Movie

NEW YORK, NY – December 03, 2025 – As the first snowflakes of the holiday season begin to fall, so too do the annual Christmas movie lineups, a cultural tradition now fiercely contested by media giants. But this year, a challenger brand is rewriting the playbook. Great American Media, the fast-growing home for faith and family content, is taking its latest holiday offering, Another Sweet Christmas, from the living room to the movie theater. This move, a first for the network, signals more than just an ambitious release strategy; it’s a calculated gambit to disrupt the holiday entertainment landscape and redefine the value proposition of niche content.

The plan is an elegant, multi-tiered assault on audience attention. The film, a sequel starring network cornerstone Candace Cameron Bure and Cameron Mathison, will debut with a limited theatrical run before making its way to the company's streaming service, Great American Pure Flix, and finally premiering on its flagship cable channel, Great American Family. It’s a "waterfall" release model that challenges the direct-to-streaming or made-for-TV conventions that have long defined the genre. This isn't just a movie premiere; it's a meticulously crafted case study in modern brand-building, testing whether a loyal, niche audience will follow their favorite content from the small screen to the big one.

The Theatrical Test Case

For decades, the made-for-TV Christmas movie has been a cozy, low-stakes affair. Great American Media’s decision to partner with Fathom Entertainment for a theatrical event shatters that mold. The strategy appears to draw inspiration not from its direct competitors like Hallmark, but from the recent, stunning box-office successes of faith-aligned films such as Sound of Freedom. These films proved that a targeted, values-driven audience can be mobilized to show up at the multiplex in force, often outperforming blockbuster films with ten times the budget.

By launching Another Sweet Christmas in theaters, Great American Media is making a bold declaration: its content is an event. The theatrical window, even a limited one, elevates the film's perceived value and creates a level of cultural buzz that a simple cable premiere cannot. It transforms passive viewers into active participants, asking them to buy a ticket and make an evening of it. The inclusion of exclusive perks, like a pre-recorded Q&A with the stars, further frames the release as a premium fan experience, not just a movie.

Financially, the box office return may be secondary. The real prize is the marketing momentum. A "successful theatrical run," as the company's press release optimistically frames it, becomes a powerful promotional tool. It provides a hook for news stories, generates social media chatter, and builds anticipation for the subsequent streaming and broadcast debuts. It’s a high-profile advertisement for the entire Great American ecosystem, designed to drive new subscribers to Great American Pure Flix and tune-in for the Great American Family premiere, validating President & CEO Bill Abbott's claim that there is a "tremendous appetite for the content we are creating."

The Bure Effect: Building a Brand on Belief

At the center of this strategic whirlwind is Candace Cameron Bure. Her 2022 move from Hallmark, where she was the undisputed "Queen of Christmas," to Great American Media was a seismic shift in the family entertainment space. But her value to the company extends far beyond her on-screen charisma. As Chief Creative Officer and a producer through her CandyRock Entertainment banner, Bure is a key architect of the network's identity.

This is the "why" behind the brand's rapid resonance with its target demographic. Bure brings more than just a familiar face; she brings an authentic, built-in audience of millions who trust her personal brand of faith and family values. With over 5.5 million followers on Instagram alone, she operates a powerful, direct-to-consumer marketing channel that she skillfully wields to promote her projects. Her posts aren't just promotional; they are extensions of the wholesome, aspirational lifestyle that Great American Media sells.

When Candace Cameron Bure announces a new movie, it’s not a network press release—it’s a personal recommendation from a trusted friend. Her involvement in Another Sweet Christmas as both star and executive producer ensures the final product is perfectly aligned with the brand promise her followers expect. As she noted in the release, the film "embodies everything we love about the season—family, faith, romance, and Christmas spirit." This synergy between talent and network mission creates a powerful feedback loop, where the star’s credibility reinforces the brand’s identity, and the brand’s platform amplifies the star’s influence.

Redrawing the Battle Lines in the Christmas Wars

Great American Media's multi-platform strategy for Another Sweet Christmas is a direct challenge to the established holiday titans. The company, helmed by former Hallmark CEO Bill Abbott, understands its opponent’s playbook intimately and is choosing to compete asymmetrically. It cannot yet match Hallmark’s sheer volume of 40-plus new movies a season, nor can it compete with Netflix's nine-figure budgets and global reach.

Instead, it is competing on focus. Where Netflix aims for broad, global appeal with diverse genres and storylines, Great American Media is hyper-focused on its "faith, family, and country" niche. Where Hallmark has recently broadened its storytelling to appeal to a wider audience, Great American has doubled down on a specific, traditionalist worldview. This theatrical release is the boldest expression of that strategy yet, betting that its core demographic is not only large but passionate enough to sustain a multi-window entertainment ecosystem.

The waterfall release—theaters, then subscription streaming, then linear broadcast—is a savvy attempt to maximize the value of a single piece of content. It allows the company to capture revenue and engagement at multiple price points and on multiple platforms, turning one film into three distinct "events." This approach stands in stark contrast to the all-at-once content drops of streaming giants, suggesting a more sustainable, deliberate model for monetizing content within a specific, high-affinity community.

The success of this strategy will be a key indicator for the future of niche media. It poses a critical question for the industry: Is it more valuable to have a billion casual viewers or a few million deeply committed fans willing to follow a brand across every platform it occupies? With Another Sweet Christmas, Great American Media is placing a firm bet on the latter. The film’s meta-narrative, in which the protagonists’ love story is turned into a Christmas movie, feels fitting. Great American Media is similarly turning its own story—that of a challenger brand built on specific values—into a spectacle for all to watch, hoping its real-life love story with its audience is one that lasts when the cameras stop rolling.