From left: Harrison Ford in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”; Jim Caviezel in “Sound of Freedom”; Tom Cruise in “Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One”.Photo:Jonathan Olley/Lucasfilm Ltd.; Amazon Prime Video/Courtesy Everett; Christian Black/Paramount Pictures
Jonathan Olley/Lucasfilm Ltd.; Amazon Prime Video/Courtesy Everett; Christian Black/Paramount Pictures
Sound of Freedom, despite mixed reactions and controversies, has now earned more at the domestic box office than big-budget sequels in theIndiana JonesandMission: Impossiblefranchises.
The movie has so far made $174 million in the U.S. since its July 4 release, according toDeadline. That’s more thanIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’s $172.9 million (released June 30) andMission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One‘s $160.8 million (released July 12).
Worldwide, Harrison Ford’sDial of Destinyhas earned over $375 million, while Tom Cruise’sDead Reckoning Part Onehas passed $522 million. Sound of Freedomis set to rollout internationally in different territories over the next few months.
For comparison,VarietyreportedthatSound of Freedom’s budget was about $14.5 million, whereasDead ReckoningandDial of Destinycost closer to $300 million each, before an estimated $100 million for marketing.
Harrison Ford in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” (2023).Jonathan Olley / Lucasfilm Ltd.
Sound of Freedomis loosely based on a true story about a man helping rescue children from a human trafficking operation in Colombia. Its star,Passion of the Christactor Jim Caviezel, has caused controversy for promoting QAnon conspiracy theories while promoting the film on far-right platforms.
Writer/director Alejandro Monteverde hasspoken out about the “heartbreaking” backlash, saying his views differ from the actor’s standpoints.
Disney, which released Lucasfilm’sIndiana Jonessequel, at one point ownedSound of Freedomwhen it purchased Fox back in 2019.
Eventually, though, its producers “raised a little bit of money and bought the film back,” Monteverde toldVariety. “Then we were thinking, ‘Okay, let’s go out [and shop it].’ Then COVID. Boom. People were always telling you even before they saw the film, ‘Right now, people want to see uplifting films.' "
“Then, the Harmon brothers [who founded Angel Studios] came in, and they just had a completely different way of marketing a film that I’ve never seen.”
“Sound of Freedom”.Amazon Prime Video / Courtesy Everett
Amazon Prime Video / Courtesy Everett
Director Monteverde indicated that he wasn’t fully on board with that campaign at first.
“They told me, ‘We’re going to put a video at the end of where Jim will talk. I was like, ‘Arghhhhh.’ I became a pain. And they told me, ‘Alejandro, let us do our work. You have to trust us.’ And we made a deal,” he said, claiming that the pay-it-forward method added “under 10 percent” to its overall box office haul.
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About the post-credit pay-it-forward video, he added to theLos Angeles Times, “Now, if you ask me, ‘Alejandro, if it was your [move], would you have that?’ I will say no. But that’s why I’m not a distributor. If I was a distributor, I’d surely collapse the company because I’d be all about the art. So I respect and admire the work that Angel Studios does, because it’s not an easy movie to market.”
Monteverde, who started the project in 2015, admitted he didn’t thinkSound of Freedomwas going to be released. Now, he says it has become a “phenomenon.”
Jim Caviezel in “Sound of Freedom”.Amazon Prime Video / Courtesy Everett Collection
Amazon Prime Video / Courtesy Everett Collection
“Nobody, no one, thought that this movie was going to make the box office it’s making. It’s a complete surprise, including to myself,” he told theLA Times. “I thought this movie was never going to see the light of day. So I ended up giving away my points. I’m not going to make $1.”
He said the near-$200-million box office performance meansSound of Freedomhas transcended to “become a bipartisan film.” Monteverde added that how the movie does in other markets will truly demonstrate the film’s appeal.
“We’re going to see what happens when [it’s released] internationally, because the politics are here. If internationally, we come back with a big price tag, then you can’t deny that,” he said. “These same conspiracy theories do not exist in Mexico, Argentina, France, Italy. I’m going to Colombia for the premiere, so I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen. I want to keep it humble. But I’m feeling excited.”
source: people.com
