Over the last four weeks, Angel Studios’ independent Film, Sound of Freedom, has drawn the support of many and captured nearly $150 million at the box office.

The amount may appear small in comparison to Hollywood blockbuster performances like Warner Bros.' Barbie and Universal's The Super Mario Bros. Each of these has brought in several hundred million dollars, but it's still a respectable box office result for a movie that only cost $14.5 million to produce.

It's particularly noteworthy in light of the fact that Warner Bros.'s DC Comics tentpole The Flash barely broke $100 million domestically and Paramount's Tom Cruise thriller Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, made less than $140 million worldwide since its July 12 release.

With such solid viewing figures, Sound of Freedom also made it to the number one spot in the domestic box office charts earlier this month, ahead of Disney’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and Insidious 5.

Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com, stated, “Angel Studios deserves a tremendous amount of credit for designing and executing one of the most unexpected indie box office runs in years,”

A rare occurrence in Hollywood, Sound of Freedom, which debuted on the July 4th holiday weekend to the tune of $14.2 million, saw ticket sales outperform its opening weekend over its second and third weekends in theaters. The movie's ticket sales have dropped by less than 40% over the previous two weekends.

Blockbuster movies typically experience weekly reductions of at least 50% before experiencing decreasing returns till the end of their theatrical run.

The sluggish decline for Sound of Freedom demonstrates that people who might have missed the movie when it initially came out have heard enough good things about it to swarm to theaters weeks later.

In actuality, the movie's theater count has increased over the past several weeks from its initial 2,600 to over 3,400. According to Comscore data, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny each debuted in more than 4,000 theaters.

″‘Sound of Freedom’ is a summer movie success story that wasn’t even on the radar just a few short weeks ago,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. ”[It] has become one of the most talked about movies of the summer a film [and its] box office revenue has surpassed that of titles with much bigger stars, brands, and budgets.”

Sound of Freedom centers on Tim Ballard (Jim Caviezel), a character inspired by a real-life government agent who quits his job to rescue a young girl from sex traffickers in Colombia.

A push by the filmmakers to persuade spectators to purchase tickets that can be claimed online for future screenings by individuals who may not be able to afford them has contributed to Sound of Freedom's box office success. Since the movie's debut, Angel Studios has sold approximately 14 million of these tickets under the "pay-it-forward" business model, according to the studio's website.

″‘Sound of Freedom’s’ sustained success goes to show that grassroots campaigning still has a sizeable impact in this day and age and that the movie’s core audience remains overlooked and underserved,” Robbins said.

Not all of Angel Studios' operations are distinctive, including its post-promotion strategy. After 20th Century Fox, which had previously owned the rights to the movie, was acquired by the Walt Disney Co. and the release was shelved, the studio raised $5 million from the public to release the movie. 2018 marked the end of Sound of Freedom's filming.

The anti-sex trafficking thriller has struck a chord with older audiences, many of whom have not been back to theaters since before the Covid pandemic. 

Disclos ure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.

Your support makes stories like this possible!

Underground Press relies entirely on your generosity, enabling us to report on the entertainment industry, free of charge and independently. Your contribution ensures millions worldwide can continue to visit our site for amazing content from around the web.
*Currency in South African Rands (ZAR)