box office trolls

QAnon’s new favorite movie is a box office hit and—shocker!—inspiring conspiracies of its own

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Image Credit: ‘Sound Of Freedom,’ Angel Films

While much of the internet braces for “Barbenheimer” weekend, another movie has been tearing up the box office this summer—and, if you’ve been busy living in your Barbie World, you may have never even heard of it: Sound Of Freedom.

The film tells the supposedly true story of Homeland Security agent Tim Ballard (The Passion Of The Christ‘s Jim Caviezel) who embarks on a dangerous vigilante mission to rescue children from a sex trafficking ring in Colombia. On RottenTomatoes, it’s earned a 74% approval rating, described as “effective and suspenseful” but “not free of issues in its depiction of the sensitive subject matter.”

It’s also a film tangled up in controversy, as key personnel involved—including Caveizel and the real-life Ballard—have history promoting and pushing wild QAnon conspiracy theories.

Championed by the likes of Elon Musk, far right-wing political commentator Ben Shapiro, and former president Donald Trump, and seemingly dismissed or ignored by mainstream media outlets, Sound Of Freedom has become the latest flashpoint in the so-called “culture wars.”

So what’s going on here, exactly?

Shot in 2018 on a reported $14.5 million budget, Sound Of Freedom has already racked up an impressive $96.2 million box office tally after just two weeks in theaters—even outpacing horror sequel Insidious: The Red Door and the latest Indiana Jones movie, according to the daily estimates on Box Office Mojo.

Plus, it holds a 100% audience approval score on RottenTomatoes. In other words, it would appear that people are really turning up for the movie—and they’re loving it.

In one sense, the numbers aren’t too surprising: Amid superhero movie fatigue, people are clamoring for more original stories on the big screen, and it’s hard to take issue with a film that—on its surface—is anti-child sex trafficking. That’s a cause anyone should be able to get behind.

But it’s 2023, with conspiracies and misinformation running rampant, and there’s a slippery slope here. As mentioned, Caviezel himself has spoken at a number of QAnon events and, even during Sound Of Freedom‘s press tour, has continued to espouse the unfounded belief that child trafficking rings drain their victims’ blood for the anti-aging hormone adrenochrome.

And Ballard has said similar, previously wading into since-debunked conspiracies—like the one about furniture retailer Wayfair’s involvement in child trafficking—while the anti-trafficking organization he started (and since left), Operation Underground Railroad, has been accused of exaggerating their operations and spreading misinformation.

Let’s not mince words, no matter how noble the cause—and cracking down on child sex trafficking certainly is noble—there’s a real danger to some of the messaging both Caveizel and Ballard are putting out there.

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So it’s definitely worrisome that Sound Of Freedom, by association, valorizes the real-life Ballard without question. As the poster plainly states, it’s supposedly “based on the incredible true story,” but even he admits elements of the film are “definitely over-reported.” He’s never even claimed the film’s inciting incident—young siblings lured to a modeling photoshoot and then kidnapped in Honduras—actually happened.

(By the way, whatever Oscar winner and Romy And Michele’s High School Reunion star Mira Sorvino is doing in this movie is beyond us. Girl, if you need help, blink twice!)

And, yet, certain far-right-wingers are eager to take it as gospel truth, championing the film and lambasting the “liberal media” for ignoring it all together. And—go figure—a movie created in part by conspiracy theorists has inspired conspiracy theories of its own.

On Twitter, Elon Musk superfan Matt Wallace shares what he claims is proof that Hollywood is trying to stop people from seeing Sound Of Freedom: A supercut of theater-goers posting about various technical errors supposedly meant to deter them from actually seeing the movie.

But, dude, this sort of thing happens all the time at movie theaters. And, if it were really such a concerted effort to keep people from seeing Sound Of Freedom, well… it’s not all that successful since the film’s reportedly made $85.5 million dollars. So why the panic, then?

On the flip side, in a popular TikTok, data scientist Rebekah Jones shares the discovery that, while a specific screening of the film was reportedly “sold out” at her local theater, no one was actually present in the theater mere minutes before its start time.

Now, you can’t take that as irrefutable proof—we don’t want to start spreading conspiracies on our side of the aisle—but it certainly raises some eyebrows.

Whether or not there are actually butts in those seats, you can’t deny Sound Of Freedom is making some serious money at the box office. And, the more it makes, the more we’re going to see QAnon believers hype it up as proof that “normal Americans” are sick of “woke” messaging in mainstream media.

Meanwhile, those same people are asking audiences to boycott Barbie because it promotes LGBTQ+ themes—that it “forgets core audience in favor of trans agenda and gender themes.” As if we needed any help deciding what movie to buy a ticket to this weekend…

Come on Barbie, let’s go party!

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