In a true stunner, the top-grossing movie on July 4th was not the blockbuster sequel INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY but, rather an independently produced, faith-based drama SOUND OF FREEDOM. Its number one ranking comes with the caveat that because it was released on the Tuesday holiday, its opening day box office also includes sales from Monday night preview screenings.
Still, this is a remarkable achievement, especially because SOUND OF FREEDOM played at only 2,600 theatres in the U.S. and Canada compared to DIAL OF DESTINY’s 4,600 locations. It’s also worth noting that SOUND OF FREEDOM was produced on a budget of $14M, compared to the $300M that Disney lavished on DIAL OF DESTINY.
SOUND OF FREEDOM was produced by Angel Studios, an independent distributor based in Provo, Utah that specializes in creating faith-based movies and series that appeal to culturally conservative and religious audiences. The Wall Street Journal profiled the company, which was founded in 2014 as VidAngel, specializing in editing studio films to remove scenes that a religious audience might find objectionable. Over the past year, they have gained traction with a theatrical release of episodes from their successful TV series THE CHOSEN and now, the original feature SOUND OF FREEDOM.
See also: A Child-Trafficking Thriller Is Taking on Hollywood. Who’s Behind It? (Wall Street Journal)