You can have quips about who the artists are behind box-office hit “Sound of Freedom”, and they might have said some dubious things during its outrageously entertaining marketing campaign, but its success hints at a bigger, more powerful, future for indie films.
I also won’t take the bait in going along with the mainstream tarnishing of this film, which has been associated with everything from the QAnon movement, Trump, and Nazis, because, quite frankly, there’s a much bigger picture here.
Here’s Alex Proyas, director of “Dark City,” “The Crow” and “I, Robot” trying to make sense of the “Sound of Freedom” box-office success, via his Patreon:
SOUND OF FREEDOM is a fascinating phenomenon at the US box office. I’ve heard so many mainstream media reviews refer to it as a “faith-based” movie - I’ve not yet seen it, and who knows when it’ll be released in Australia — but from all I know it seems there is little religiosity in this other than the man the story is based on is Christian and so are Jim Caveziel (who stars) and Mel Gibson (who helped produce I believe). Seems like the mainstream uses “faith-based” as a way to make “sensible” people stay away. Other than this is a story about good people doing good things, I'm puzzled to know why anyone would think this might be a reason to not see a film.
The “conspiracy” angle the mainstream are trying to pin on this seems like so much nonsense however true to life — or not — this is. I mean have these reviewers ever seen a biopic? An absolutely 100% TRUE one? It is a dramatic medium after all, not a documentary. I think the only “conspiracy” here might be that the mainstream are annoyed this movie is doing so well, while bigger budget franchises are failing - the mainstream seem to be looking for ways to play down its success.
What also fascinates me is how this movie was made. Angel Studios are paving the way with the power of crowd investing — a New Model for changing times perhaps? And not too different to the model I'm currently building and will tell you more about on Patreon. It's good to see filmmakers succeed with something so similar - gives me hope. That, and the legacy-media struggling to keep up. Ha!
So, he’s basically implying, hell, convinced, that the hate this film has been getting from the “mainstream” is pure, unadultered jealousy that a conservative-based independent movie is doing so well at the box-office. Fair enough.
What I’m most fascinated by, when it comes to “Sound of Freedom,” is not its qualities as a film — it’s fine, minor, watchable — but rather by its success as a $15 million independent production. It’s already made $125 million domestically. I get it, I get it, some of those receipts come from the “Pay it Forward” program, but the movie, undeniably, is still a major success.
Proyas hasn’t been successful in greenlighting a film since his 2016 panned “Gods of Egypt.” What the success of “Sound of Freedom” means to him is a potential opportunity to make more movies. I am certain many other indie filmmakers are curiously watching this phenomenon as well.
This isn’t just good news for “faith-based” movies, it’s good news for any indie filmmaker looking for his or her movie to branch out. What Angel Studios is doing might the pave the way for the future of a struggling industry. Crowd investing!
Check your politics at the door and look at the bigger picture here. It’s become the most successful indie movie of the decade, nearly doubling the totals of EEAAO.