Bob Unruh – Most movies have a huge opening weekend. But then the attendance and income rapidly deteriorate.
That’s why studios spend the big bucks on advertising and such, to get fans out for those first few days.
One film, however, is showing the ability to move against the trend.
A new report from Celluloid Junkie reveals that “Sound of Freedom,” the stunning story of a former federal agent who turned his life’s goals into helping those children who are being trafficked, is seeing surging attendance – weeks after its opening.
The movie from Angel Studios, where filmmakers use crowdfunding to create and distribute films, confirmed its third weekend total revenue was “a strong $20,140,647.”
The figure is higher than its debut weekend.
“Angel Studios is projecting nearly $125 million total cumulative box office revenue through Sunday,” the report said. That’s despite recent reports that it focuses on what, under Joe Biden, has had the U.S. become the de facto “middleman” in child trafficking.
That’s according to a damning new report compiled by journalist and Gatestone Institute Senior Fellow Uzay Bulut.
The scourge is documented in the new movie “Sound of Freedom,” which has been under siege by media over its warning to society. Legacy media outlets have been harshly critical of the project.
Now another report, this one from the New York Post, suggests the movie is under attack from another direction, too.
The report explains moviegoers are claiming “movie theaters are intentionally sabotaging showings of the controversial film ‘Sound of Freedom’ by either forgetting to dim the lights, or in at least one case, turning off the air conditioning in the theater.”
The movie has stunned the movie industry, and the nation, for its popularity. It beat out a new “Indiana Jones” movie when it opened.
It tells the real-life story of former Homeland Security agent, Tim Ballard, played by Jim Caviezel, who fights child trafficking.
The Post report explained, “Since the film opened July 4, several patrons of AMC Theatres and Regal Cinemas have complained on social media that they have been forced to evacuate theaters due to unforeseen circumstances.”
On TikTok, one user, Ohio rapper Jamskillet, aka Jacob Matthews, reported when he saw the film, “There was no AC running,” leaving the theater “unbearably hot.”
He said he was told the system “wasn’t working.”
He also noted when he bought tickets, the entire theater was almost booked. But on arrival, there were only eight people seated.
“I didn’t think anything of this until I got on TikTok a few days later, and come to find out that hundreds of other people are experiencing the same thing,” he said. “So AMC and Regal, the people who own it, are not running AC and they’re making it hard to get tickets.”
Another moviegoer wrote of his experience in a theater where the lights were not dimmed for the showing, and a video revealed a theater worker offering attendees “free passes to come back and see [the movie] again, hopefully without interruption,” the report said.
AMC Theaters spokesman Adam Aron rejected the idea.
“Really bizarre FUD [fear, uncertainty and doubt] floating around Twitter that we are suppressing attendance for Sound of Freedom,” tweeted Aron. “Yesterday we showed that movie 3,000 times at our 570 U.S. theatres and more than 100,000 people watched it @AMCTheatres. Misinformation on Twitter is astonishing. Bots? Haters?”
SF Source WND Jul 2023