The new movie “Sound Of Freedom,” a film starring Jim Caviezel, trumped Disney’s latest installment of the Indiana Jones series, “Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny,” at the July 4 box office. This comes as a surprise given the film’s modest budget compared to the massive marketing might of Disney.
Directed by Alejandro Monteverde, “Sound Of Freedom” chronicles the life of former DHS agent Tim Ballard and his relentless fight against child trafficking. The movie is distributed by Angel Studios, a small, faith-based studio. Despite operating on a fraction of Disney’s marketing budget, “Sound Of Freedom” generated considerable buzz leading up to its opening, enjoying high praise from critics and audiences alike. The movie currently holds a 99% approval rating among audiences and an 85% mark from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, rendering it a “fresh” pick on the movie review platform.
Before its official release, the film had already made an impression, selling over a million presale tickets and generating over $10 million in presale revenue. This impressive start is no small feat for a faith-based independent studio. The film also gained endorsements from notable figures such as renowned actor/director Mel Gibson, who passionately urged fans to watch the film.
“Sound Of Freedom” didn’t stop at pre-release success. On its opening day, the movie grossed over $14 million, surpassing the $11.5 million haul of Disney’s “Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny,” according to Deadline. This triumphant performance greatly exceeded industry forecasts, which anticipated the film would gross $11 million over six days.
Meanwhile, Disney faces a challenging path to profitability with Indiana Jones’ final chapter, given its substantial budget. The company has reportedly lost over $890 million on its last eight studio releases, a figure that could exceed $1 billion as these films are directly released to the Disney+ streaming service. Consequently, there will be no additional revenue from licensing them to rival platforms like Netflix or Amazon.
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” with a budget of $295 million before marketing, will need to generate a global gross of $1 billion to break even. This formidable task is further complicated by upcoming releases with which it will compete. As the public’s response to “Sound Of Freedom” shows, audiences are willing to back smaller, relevant, and quality cinema over big-budget franchises that may not meet their expectations.
