Movies & TV / Columns
Analyzing the Release of Sound of Freedom
Image Credit: Angel Studios
Analyzing the Release of Sound of Freedom
Sound of Freedom is a new action thriller (or is it a drama? I’ve seen it described as both) starring Jim Caviezel and directed by Alejandro Monteverde and released by an outfit called Angel Studios. The movie was released to theaters on July 4th, 2023, and has made around $124.7 million at the box office on a $14.5 million budget. It isn’t wrong to say that the movie is a massive hit for Angel Studios and that it will more than likely make loads more money at the theatrical box office in the coming weeks (and then it will likely make a fortune on digital and home video). In terms of “the movie business,” it doesn’t really matter if the movie is any good or not. People want to see it, and as long as people keep buying tickets there’s no reason to think that it won’t continue to be a hit for some time to come.
So how did this happen? How did Sound of Freedom make all of this money and become a big part of the current pop culture and political zeitgeist?
Analyzing the release of Sound of Freedom
Now, I want to stipulate right out front that I have not seen Sound of Freedom, nor do I have any plans to see it during its theatrical run (I barely have the time to see the movies I actually want to see there’s no way I can squeeze in something that I don’t want to see). I may watch it and review it one day if someone wants to give me a DVD of it, and if that doesn’t happen I may watch it if and when it ever hits TV or one of the streaming services (like HBO or Peacock or something). I have no idea if the movie is any good. Based on what I’ve seen from the movie’s trailer, it looks like any number of low budget genre movies that manage to get some sort of theatrical release. The movie’s eventual DVD release wouldn’t look out of place at Walmart next to the low budget horror and action movies that you always see there. I’m going to assume that it doesn’t have much in the way of “violent action movie” action in it because of its “faith based movie” pedigree, but, who knows, it might (I haven’t read any reviews mentioning just how much action is in it. It might have loads of action in it, or it might have a scene or two of action in it. I don’t know). I’m going to guess that the movie’s PG-13 rating has more to do with the movie’s general subject matter. The movie also looks like it takes its subject matter extremely seriously, which I’d imagine is part of its appeal. That can be a good thig or a bad thing (there’s nothing wrong with earnestness but there’s always that possibility that if the movie takes itself too seriously that it ends up being boring).
So, again, how did this happen? How did Sound of Freedom become such a big part of the current pop culture and political zeitgeist?
Marketing. That’s all, really.
Marketing.
Angel Studios figured out ahead of time who the target audience for the movie was, focused like a laser on that audience, and was lucky enough to get that audience motivated to see it. That target audience appears to be an amalgamation of what’s often called the “faith based” or religious movie watching audience (think the Left Behind movies) and the political hard core right wing audience that The Daily Wire continues to fail to cultivate. Throw in the hardcore right wing conspiracy crowd (the people you see rambling on social media about QAnon and the Deep State and all sorts of other conspiracy theory nonsense) and anyone else that wants to “own the libtards” and you have the movie’s audience.
Angel Studios, both deliberately and passively, realized that what it needed to do was market the movie like any other exploitation movie that has ever been released (and by “exploitation movie” I mean the movie has a plot hook that can be exploited/advertised to get people interested in it). Angel Studios managed to get right wing media and right wing media personalities to talk about it, then used social media to spread the word (and if you’ve ever spent any amount of time in the world of right wing social media you know that when it gets motivated about something it gets goddamn motivated about something). Angel Studios also leaned into the whole “It’s the movie they don’t want you to see!” canard which has been used a million times over the years for any number of movies (or music albums or books or TV shows). Angel Studios created a movement, which then created awareness, which then lead to people buying tickets. It isn’t exactly rocket science, but it is incredibly hard to do.
Angel Studios has also used a sort of crowdfunding strategy to get people to buy tickets for other people to see the movie (check out the IndieWire article explaining this scheme here). It’s nothing short of audacious to ask people to buy tickets so other people can see the movie and then get them to do it. As a result of this strategy it’s difficult to gauge how many actual people have seen the movie (there are reports online of theaters being sold out yet very few people are actually in the theater watching the movie), but in the end it doesn’t really matter if anyone has actually seen the movie. As long as tickets are being purchased that’s all that really matters business wise.
It’s all just a big scheme. An exploitation movie release scam of the highest order. It’s brilliant. I am truly in awe of it. And the success of this scheme makes me wonder if any future low budget/niche movies will try a similar release scheme. Will other faith based/religious movies try it? Are there any upcoming horror movies that might want to get people to buy tickets for other people to see their movie? It will be interesting to see if anyone tries. Can this specific scheme work again?
**
Now, I want to attempt to explain/examine some of the questions/controversies surrounding the movie’s release because there’s an overwhelming amount of spurious garbage about Sound of Freedom and its place in the world at large that needs to be dealt with.
The plot of Sound of Freedom is groundbreaking and important.
Yes and no. The movie’s plot is groundbreaking in that fictional narrative movies rarely use child sex trafficking as a plot, but human trafficking as a plot device isn’t anything new, especially one where it’s about a hero of some sort that needs to take down a human trafficking ring and or rescue someone trapped in a human trafficking situation. Taken with Liam Neeson is a human trafficking movie. David Mamet’s excellent Spartan starring Val Kilmer used human trafficking/sex trafficking as a major plot point in its story. Dolph Lundgren produced and starred in an all-star low budget action flick about human trafficking called Skin Trade that was released back in 2014 (it had a small theatrical release and then went to home video and digital. Skin Trade also featured Tony Jaa, Michael Jai White, Ron Perlman, Celina Jade, and Peter Weller). And Bruce Willis appeared in a low budget action flick alongside Cole Hauser and Mike Epps called Acts of Violence (that movie was released in 2018). And a good portion of the plot of the last Rambo movie, Rambo: Last Blood, featured human trafficking (check out my review of Rambo: Last Blood here). And the awesome New York Ninja also featured human trafficking in its plot (check out my review of that movie here). You should also check out the action flick The Mongolian Connection (check out my review of that movie here).
But child sex trafficking is an important issue. Why isn’t Hollywood making more movies bringing attention to it?
The hardcore right wing/QAnon world claims that the lack of Hollywood movie focus on child sex trafficking is all due to the elite Satanic Hollywood Jew globalist cabal trying to keep it a big secret. The elite Satanic Hollywood Jew globalist cabal wants to keep the adrenochrome that it harvests from the kidnapped children it scares/rapes all for itself. Open your eyes sheeple! The far more likely/non-horribly anti-Semitic/non-brainwormed reasoning for the lack of movies about/”exposing” child sex trafficking is its rough, depressing subject matter, and the actual businesspeople that run Hollywood would rather make movies that aren’t super depressing (audiences don’t really flock to movies with depressing subject matter all that often). That doesn’t mean Hollywood won’t make movies about super depressing subject matter, but unless a big star wants to make it or a major director is interested in it that super depressing subject matter movie probably won’t get made. It took Dolph Lundgren years to get Skin Trade made. Think about how many mainstream Hollywood movies have been made about the Holocaust. They do get made, but Hollywood isn’t exactly churning them out like Transformers sequels.
But Hollywood makes “message” movies all of the time. Why won’t Hollywood make a “message movie” about child sex trafficking?
Lots of movies have messages or themes in them. Writers and directors and producers are artists and, sometimes, they want to bring attention to some issue or cause. Sometimes the movies are very open about the message they want to get across and sometimes it’s all in the subtext. Maybe someone hasn’t figured out how to make child sex trafficking subtext yet. And Hollywood did make a movie about child sex trafficking and it won an Oscar for Best Picture, but then that movie, Spotlight, wasn’t about an action hero rescuing child sex trafficking victims from a shadowy criminal underground. Spotlight was about journalists uncovering a child molestation scandal in the Catholic Church. That kind of story doesn’t get the people wondering about the lack of “child sex trafficking message movies” as excited.
But why are so many mainstream media pundits pointing out a “QAnon connection” to the movie when QAnon isn’t mentioned once in Sound of Freedom?
The whole “QAnon connection” refers to the movie’s star, Jim Caviezel, and his apparent belief in/support of the batshit insane QAnon conspiracy. You can read an article all about it here). You can also explore social media sites like Twitter and find oodles of QAnon supporters talking about the movie. As for these mainstream media pundits and what they’re talking about, like conspiracy theory researcher and debunker Mike Rothschild, author of the excellent QAnon expose The Storm is Upon Us, they want people to know what’s swirling around the discussion of the movie and just how dangerous QAnon is. And QAnon is dangerous. As Rothschild pointed out in the CNN interview clip that’s making its way around social media, one of the dangers of QAnon latching onto Sound of Freedom is they think they’re doing something by watching the movie when it comes to taking down child sex trafficking rings, and then some of them might act on their beliefs and do something violent (you can check out this article here to learn about some of that stuff. You can also take a look at any crowd footage from the January 6th attack on the U.S. capitol and see plenty of QAnon symbols in the crowd). The world really doesn’t need more QAnon violence. These pundits also want to say publicly, again, that QAnon is just bullshit of the highest order. I don’t think that fact can be stressed enough.
But why are these mainstream media pundits trying to discredit the anti-child sex trafficking message of Sound of Freedom? Isn’t that a little suspicious?
Mainstream media pundits aren’t trying to discredit the movie’s anti-child sex trafficking message. Pundits are trying to put the movie’s message in its proper perspective. According to the experts, the majority of child sex trafficking is done by people close to the victims. Children aren’t typically kidnapped by strangers, which is something the movie apparently focusses on. That doesn’t meant that it never happens, it just isn’t the majority of what happens. And I’d bet that the people doing the day-to-day work dealing with child sex trafficking victims would want the word out about what is actually happening.
As for the whole “isn’t that suspicious?” thing, no, it isn’t suspicious at all. The mainstream media, even with its massive faults, does try to get accurate information out into the world. The MSM wouldn’t be doing its due diligence by not covering what Sound of Freedom is apparently depicting.
And, no, the mainstream media pundits are not downplaying child sex trafficking because they’re all involved it, they’re all pedophiles, and they’re all part of the elite Satanic Hollywood Jew globalist cabal that wants all of the adrenochrome. And before someone foams themselves to tell me about the two producers at CNN that were outed as pedophiles, you can read about them here and here. You can also then read here about a youth soccer coach in Tennessee to gain some perspective on where you can find pedophiles (they come from all walks of life).
But isn’t Sound of Freedom based on a true story and a real person?
Yes, it is “based on a true story” and “a real person.” Tim Ballard, the guy played by Jim Caviezel, is a real person (you can read all about Ballard here and here). But how many movies have been made, and how many movies have you seen, that are “based on a true story,” “based on real events,” or “inspired by true/real events” that have turned out to be altered for dramatic effect/highly fictionalized? Loads. Sound of Freedom is no different. It’s a movie telling a story. Some of it’s real, some of it’s bullshit, some of it’s a combination of both. Even if it’s a “message movie” and wants the audience to become more aware of something, in the end, it’s just a movie. Act accordingly.
But what about all of those reports about theatrical screenings going haywire and air conditioning not working, etc.? Isn’t all of that suspicious?
Think about it like this: is it more plausible that the elite Satanic Hollywood Jew globalist cabal that wants all of the adrenochrome is forcing movie theaters and movie theater chains to shut off the air conditioning in theaters that are showing Sound of Freedom and conjure up various technical issue shenanigans, or is it more plausible that machines fail sometimes?
Movie theaters experience “technical difficulties” all of the time. Projectors and speakers and all sorts of other things shit the bed all of the time. Air conditioners fail, too. I mean, it’s been a hot summer across the United States. Companies and people fail to/forget to perform maintenance on air conditioning units all of the time. Sometimes the A/C is on but it doesn’t feel like it (I’ve been to multiple movies over the years where that kind of thing happened. I don’t think Columbia Pictures or IMAX didn’t want me to see The Equalizer). Stuff happens. There’s no conspiracy afoot here at all.
But didn’t Disney shelve Sound of Freedom back in 2018? Why didn’t Disney/Hollywood want people to see it?
Sound of Freedom was completed in 2018 and was apparently set to be get some sort of release via 20th Century Fox. However, 20th Century Fox was purchased by Disney back in 2018 and Disney did shelve the movie. It’s possible (and probably more likely) that Disney didn’t want to release the movie because it wanted to focus on bigger movies (Sound of Freedom is a low budget movie) and couldn’t figure out how it wanted to release something smaller that it suddenly owned. And if Disney didn’t want anyone to see Sound of Freedom it wouldn’t have sold the movie to Angel Studios. Disney wouldn’t have sold the movie to anyone.
Movie studios change release dates and release strategies all of the time. Movies get pulled from dates, moved to different dates, it isn’t anything new or suspicious.
Conclusion
Sound of Freedom is a bonafide box office success. It has made lots of money, and will likely continue to make lots of money, by using a tried and true exploitation movie marketing scheme. It’s brilliant, in a way. Angel Studios should be commended for finding a way to get people into theaters and spend money on its movie. But that’s all that’s really going on here, people. It’s a marketing scheme. A big cinematic release flim flam. Again, it’s brilliant. It will be interesting to see if Angel Studios or anyone else try to release something else with the same sort of strategy. But Sound of Freedom, even with its urgent message, is just a movie. Don’t fall down the hardcore right wing/QAnon/conspiracy theory rabbit hole, and if you are currently ensconced in all of that garbage, please try to find a way out. It’s no good for you or your family and friends or the world and it’s all just a bunch of bullshit. There is no elite Satanic Hollywood Jew globalist cabal to keep all of the adrenochrome. It’s just nonsense.
Brainworms are a hell of a thing. Don’t let them get you, too.
**
Thanks for reading. Agree? Disagree? Sign up with disqus and comment. You know you want to, so just go do it.
Please “like” The Gratuitous B-Movie Column on Facebook!
Oh, and B-movies rule. Always remember that.
