‘Sound of Freedom’ is Unlikey Sucess After Being Rescued From Disney

The movie, Sound of Freedom is currently in theaters and creating quite a lot of buzz online. Not only has it received a lot of social media attention, it’s also become an unexpected box office smash! No one saw Sound of Freedom’s success coming, especially not Disney.

Credit: Angel Studios

The film is directed by Mexican director Alejandro Monteverde and is based on a true story. According to Distractify, “[Sound of Freedom] follows former government agent Tim Ballard (Jim Caviezel) as he takes on a mission to rescue children from sex traffickers in Colombia The film is adapted from the story of the real Tim Ballard, who previously founded Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.), a nonprofit organization that conducts strong operations to take down sex trafficking rings.”

The movie is hard to watch at times but very good and relevant to the times we are living in where sex trafficking is at an unfortunate all time high. The movie was filmed in 2018 and ready for release by 20th Century Fox. However, it got swept up in the 20th Century Fox/Disney merger during that time and right to the film were transferred to Disney before it hit theaters.

Credit: Angel Studios

Disney, interestingly, decided this film wasn’t worth releasing and shelved it. To shelve a film means to put the project on hold, often forever. It seems that was Disney’s plan. There were no plans, or even discussions of plans to ever release the ready-made film it had acquired. It languished in a pile of canceled ideas and on-hold projects for years. Disney has not released any statement or given any indication for why the film was shelved nor do we expect that they will. Theories abound, but most of them contain no factual basis.

The film makers weren’t so willing to give up on the movie, though. They fought with Disney to regain the rights to the film alongside Angel Studios, a Mormon based production company out of Utah. After the seemingly insurmountable task of gaining the rights, Angel Studios launched a crowdfunding campaign to release Sound of Freedom in theaters.

Credit: Angel Studios

The film hit theaters on July 4th. The timing was though by many to be unfortunate because several huge movies, including Disney’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, were also being released around the same time (June 30). Despite all expectations, Sound of Freedom held its own against the titan franchise. Reports indicate that Sound of Freedom actually beat Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny over the holiday. Sound of Freedom raked in $14 million while Indiana Jones earned $11 million. Overall Indy is beating the anti-child trafficking film. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has earned $60 million in its first week compared to Sound of Freedom’s $40 million.