Controversial Sound Of Freedom Is Now One Of 2023's 10 Biggest Movies At The Domestic Box Office
In a summer filled with shocking disappointments and surprise hits, nothing has been more surprising than the controversial faith-based "Sound of Freedom." Hailing from Angel Studios and starring Jim Caviezel ("Person of Interest"), the film took the industry and exhibitors by surprise when it first hit theaters over the Fourth of July holiday. It has been on a tear ever since. Now, in its sixth weekend and as the summer movie season is winding down, the film has officially become one of the highest-grossing domestic releases of 2023.
"Sound of Freedom" has now amassed $172.84 million domestically, per The Numbers, putting it just above "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" ($172.64 million) to make it the tenth highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office this year. The fact that a movie with next to no mainstream advertising ahead of its release has surpassed an "Indiana Jones" movie from Disney and Lucasfilm in North America is downright shocking. Even more shocking? It may yet overtake "John Wick: Chapter 4" ($187.1 million) to climb even higher on the charts.
In its most recent weekend, "Sound of Freedom" took in another $4.8 million, whereas "Dial of Destiny" is completely running out of gas, bringing in just $921,000. So director Alejandro Gómez Monteverde's film about the exploits of real-life figure Tim Ballard, who has devoted much of his life to saving children from child traffickers, still has room to run. This has no doubt been a welcome surprise for exhibitors such as AMC who sorely need people to fill seats in their theaters, but this movie's success is by no means a cut-and-dry, roundly positive thing.
Controversy didn't slow Sound of Freedom down
Virtually ever since the movie hit theaters, "Sound of Freedom" has been a lightning rod for controversy, with mainstream media outlets such as Rolling Stone and others accusing it of having ties to the conspiracy group QAnon. Meanwhile, Angel Studios has raised millions of dollars through its "Pay it Forward" ticket system where people can buy tickets for the movie that others can claim, free of charge. This is really just the tip of the iceberg, and I dove into the messiness of it all recently in a more meaningful way.
In short, the movie itself, which was made more than five years ago and sat on a shelf until recently, is more or less harmless. It's the figures around it such as Caviezel and Ballard who are problematic, and it's been politicized heavily. There's also the fact that Fabian Marta, one of the people who helped fund the movie, was recently charged with child kidnapping. Given that this is a movie about saving children from human traffickers, that's pretty shocking.
The point is that money was raised through unconventional means to goose this movie's box office, but the money is making its way to theaters nevertheless. The people at the center of the film are hugely problematic, and its success has given them a massive platform. So, on the one hand, this is a hit that the industry could really use. On the other, it's impossible to deny the messiness of what's going on in the real world tied to the film. But there's no stopping this train, it seems, and with an international release pending, it's poised to get even more attention in the coming weeks/months.