In a year that showcased a whirlwind of headlines in entertainment, stories of an independent movie rising from obscurity to outgross big studio films and making a controversial splash aren’t exactly new. However, the notoriety of the film Sound of Freedom is a unique and interesting journey. The director, Alejandro Monteverde, had been working to bring his project to the big screen since 2015. This year, the movie has finally been released with a huge take in box office figures and it’s now due to expand internationally.
The movie found its forward momentum thanks to its adopted distributor, Angel Studios, and its crowdfunding campaign. They were able to raise $5 million for marketing, and thanks to the $174 million in domestic gross that the film garnered, Angel Studios has been able to pay their investors back with a slight increase, according to Deadline. The CEO of Angel Studios, Neal Harmon, stated, “6,678 Angel Guild members have now received $1.20 for every $1 they invested into the launch budget for Sound of Freedom, and we are thrilled to be able to get funds back to them in three months. The Angel Guild is key to our theatrical strategy and paying out as quickly as possible is always our first priority.”
The film is now heading to global territories, which will surely add a substantial amount to its total earnings, and the director recently spoke with Variety about the possibility of making a sequel. “There’s definitely a lot of interest to exploring [the subject] a little deeper, because this is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot of interest to kind of explore Haiti, what’s happening in Haiti. There’s [sequel] talks focusing on Haiti,” Monteverde said. “Haiti was a big part of Tim’s work. I was very tempted to do Haiti on this film. But I wanted to do an origin story, and it was too much material. I needed to end where I ended.”
He would additionally address his disappointment with the films association with the controversial Q-Anon, “I was like really sick. I was like, ‘This is all wrong. That’s not true.’ It was heartbreaking when I saw all this polemic and all this controversy going on. My instinct was to run. I want to hide. I don’t want to give any more interviews.”
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