In 2023, Angel Studios was up against bigger distributors—including Warner Bros., Columbia Pictures, and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Yet the studio made it into the top 10 list of movies with “Sound of Freedom.”
“We spent eight years of our lives putting this movie together,” producer Eduardo Verástegui told Fox News. After three years of rejection in Hollywood, Verástegui continued to hear that “nobody would go see this film.”
However, Verástegui didn’t give up on the film. And neither did 3,400 theaters and more than 1 million people—just in the first month of release.
‘Sound of Freedom’ Grossed More Than $180K, Surpassing ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’
BoxOfficeMojo.com released a list of the top-grossing films domestically, and “Sound of Freedom” earned $184,177,725—easily sitting within the top 10. The top three films for 2023 include “Barbie” (grossing more than $630 million), “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (bringing in nearly $575 million), and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (grossing just over $380 million).
The top 10 grossing movies also include “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (No. 4), “Oppenheimer” (No. 5), and “The Little Mermaid” (No. 6). “Avatar: The Way of Water” (no. 7), “And-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (No. 8), and “John Wick: Chapter 4” (No. 9) round out the list.
Surprisingly, top films “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” finished after “Sound of Freedom”—at 11th and 12th, respectively.
“Sound of Freedom” is based on a true story and follows a federal agent who rescues a young boy from “ruthless child traffickers.” The agent Tim Ballard, played by Jim Caviezel, finds out that the boy’s sister is still captive and “decides to embark on a dangerous mission to save her.”
The film shows Ballard’s harrowing journey of quitting his job and entering the jungles of Colombia to save the girl from human trafficking.
According to Christian Headlines, “Sound of Freedom” is “the only wide release in Hollywood history to have a second-weekend increase greater than 35 percent at the summer box office.”
Released on July 4, “Sound of Freedom” opened at No. 1 and stayed in the top three more times. The film still has a 99% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Nevertheless, other distributors didn’t see the potential of “Sound of Freedom.” After years of rejection, Verástegui was working with Fox to release the film. That deal was canceled when Disney bought Fox and told Verástegui, “This material doesn’t resonate with us.”
“I was praying to God for an angel to come and rescue this film,” Verástegui said. “And what are the odds that from all the studios, the one that picked this movie is called Angel Studios?”
Angel Studios posted a year-end recap thanking its supporters: “Together with you, the Angels of Angel Studios, we’ve broken records, seen unprecedented success, and made ripples in the film industry.” The studio continued, “2023 would have not been the same without you!”
Within the post, Angel Studios invited comments on how the content has made a difference. Nearly 70 people chimed in.
“Will continue to watch your movies. All have inspired me to be vigilant about helping others, especially ‘Sounds of Freedom.’ Keep up the good work,” shared one person.
“Loved Sound of Freedom! It took me on an emotional roller coaster—especially through officially being aware of how bad things are,” said another. “I really appreciated The Shift because I was feeling discouraged of how crazy the world is right now, but that movie reminded me to never give up on hope. I evidently need to watch The Chosen now thanks to these comments!”
