Shout! Studios Acquires North American Rights To Roll With It, The Highly Sought-After Family Comedy Movie Starring Comedic Icon Chonda Pierce

Shout! Studios, a multi-platform media company, has acquired North American distribution rights to the highly anticipated comedy feature ROLL WITH IT, starring the groundbreaking comedic icon Chonda Pierce. This laugh-out-loud comedy film weaves an inspiring story of strength, survival, family values and faith, with Pierce playing a single mother who, with help from her friends, readjusts to life after the loss of her husband. Written and directed by Chris Dowling (Blue Miracle, Acidman), Pierce leads an impressive cast that includes Judith Hoag (Armageddon, Nashville), McKaley Miller (Ma, Scream Queens), Evan Hofer (General Hospital, Dwight in Shining Armor), Carl McDowell (Ballers, Holidate), Mark Christopher Lawrence (Bringing Back Christmas, Family Camp) and other notables. The announcement was made today by Melissa Boag, Shout! Studios Executive Vice President. 

For Pierce, ROLL WITH IT is the latest project in a career whose highlights include platinum-certified comedy albums, regular performances at the Grand Ole Opry, and five Daytime Emmy nominations. She isn't just the film's lead actress. She's one of its main creators, too, writing the original script with her late husband David Pierce, and serving as executive producer with her longtime manager, Andrew Tenenbaum. Christian music legend Michael W. Smith, Shari Rigby, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and others make cameo appearances, but the real star of ROLL WITH IT is Chonda Pierce, who empowers her viewers to share the same roll-with-it resilience as her character, Bonnie Taylor. Produced by Ben Howard, J. Clarke Gallivan, and Ken Carpenter, ROLL WITH IT has already delighted movie audiences and fans when the film premiered in theaters across the U.S. as a three-day event by Fathom Events. Moreover, the film garnered the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at Dallas International Film Festival.

This multi-year movie deal provides Shout! Studios with all distribution rights in North America, including home entertainment (digital, video-on-demand, broadcast, and all packaged media) and theatrical for cross-platform releases. Shout! Studios plans a strategic rollout of the feature across multiple platforms, beginning with a digital launch in the spring 2024.

“We are thrilled for this terrific opportunity to bring this inspiring comedy movie across multiple entertainment platforms,” stated Melissa Boag, Shout! Studios’ Executive Vice President, Kids & Family Entertainment. “Roll With It, led by the multitalented and pitch-perfect Chonda Pierce, will surely have audiences laughing and grooving to the beat! We look forward to presenting this movie to fans and families through home entertainment soon.”

"I wanted to create a movie that had the heart of the classic 80s movies that I love and would allow the audience to sit back, laugh, sing and fall in love with Chonda. From winning the audience award at The Dallas International Film Festival to watching audience reactions in theaters, I'm so excited to partner with Shout! Studios to get this joyful film into the homes across America," stated filmmaker Chris Dowling.

Movie Synopsis 
ROLL WITH IT is a music-filled and heartfelt comedy built around southern comedy icon Chonda Pierce, who is beloved for her gut-level honesty and pointed humor. If laughter is the best medicine, Chonda’s character Bonnie Taylor could use an extra dose or two. Not only is she dealing with an unexpected demotion at her job at the Biscuit Barrel and a young new boss willing to match her snark-for-snark, she also discovers her house will be on the auction block by month’s end if she can’t come up with $20,000 in back taxes. With her only hope being the grand prize in a karaoke contest, and with the support of her faith, family, and friends that are family, Bonnie must decide if she’s willing to sing for the first time without her late husband by her side to save the home they raised their family in. ROLL WITH IT is a down-home family comedy filled with music, friendship, laughter, and love—and a heaping helping of hope.

Fifth Season Presents A Third Coast Content Production
Cast: Chonda Pierce, McKaley Miller, Evan Hofer, Carl McDowell, Mark Christopher Lawrence and Judith Hoag
Music by Paul Mills
Music Supervisor: Kevin Edelman
Costume Designer: Anna Redmon
Editor: Chris Witt
Executive Producers: Chonda Pierce, Andrew D. Tenenbaum, Max A. Butler
Produced by Ben Howard, J. Clarke Gallivan, and Ken Carpenter
Story by Chonda Pierce, Martha Bolton, and David Pierce
Written and Directed by Chris Dowling

About Chonda Pierce:
Chonda Pierce is America's best-selling female comedian of all time. A platinum-certified and Emmy-nominated artist, she has spent nearly three decades combining music, humor, and southern storytelling into her own form of family-friendly entertainment. Billboard calls her "the country comic." Others call her "The Queen of Clean." To the 125,000 people who attend her shows every year, she's simply Chonda Pierce.

A preacher's daughter, Chonda was raised in South Carolina and launched her performance career in Nashville, where she performed at Opryland Theme Park for six years. Since then, she's become an author of autobiographies and children's book, a regular on the Grand Ole Opry, the star of three documentary films, the co-host of the Emmy-nominated talk show Aspiring Women, and one of the most popular comics in modern history. Influenced by her southern roots, her faith, her desire to help others, and the dark times in her own history, Chonda offers an empowering and hilarious take on life in her comedy shows. Five of her comedy DVDs have been certified gold and three have been certified platinum, a testament not only to her success, but her relatability, too.

About SHOUT! STUDIOS
Shout! Studios is a multi-platform media company specializing in film and TV distribution, development, and production. The company has evolved with the changing entertainment landscape to excel in all forms of content distribution, including theatrical, digital streaming, broadcast and in-flight licensing, physical media, and more. Shout! Studios owns and manages a large portfolio of contemporary and classic feature films, series, animation, and documentaries. The company’s creative acquisition mandate has established it as a leading independent distributor, with partners and properties including Aardman Animations, ALF, The Carol Burnett Show, Stephen J. Cannell Productions, the Roger Corman New Horizons Pictures Library, GKIDS, Studio Ghibli, ITV Studios, The Johnny Carson Show, LAIKA Studios, Mystery Science Theater 3000 (in partnership with creator Joel Hodgson), and Sesame Street, alongside many others. Shout! Kids focuses on live-action and animated kids and family properties including anime, and the company releases genre and horror films and television shows under the Scream Factory imprint. Shout! Studios also produces, acquires, and distributes new films, and operates the acclaimed streaming service Shout! TV and its family of FAST channels. Shout! Studios is based in Los Angeles, California. For more on Shout! Studios, visit ShoutStudios.com.