While Sound of Freedom undoubtedly represented a passion project for everyone who was involved in the making of the film, specifically co-writer and director Alejandro Monteverde and star Jim Caviezel, no one could have predicted that the film, which was completed in 2018 and then languished in limbo until the film received worldwide distribution in 2023, would become the most surprising box office hit of not just 2023 but recent history.
Moreover, as Sound of Freedom, which had a production cost of $14.5 million, has now reached the end of its theatrical life domestically, the film’s current domestic box office gross of approximately $184 million has surpassed the domestic box office totals of such would-be blockbuster films as Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.
However, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One have each bested Sound of Freedom at the overseas box office, where Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One have grossed approximately $209 million and $395 million, respectively.
Indeed, the unconventional nature of Sound of Freedom’s crowd-funded distribution model, along with the relative promotional immaturity of the film’s distributor, Angel Studios, has resulted in a piecemeal rollout for Sound of Freedom in the international markets, where Sound of Freedom has made gradual progress.
Sound Traveler
In addition to the approximately $184 million that Sound of Freedom has earned at the domestic box office, the film has earned approximately $47 million at the international box office, for a current worldwide box office total of approximately $231 million.
Accordingly, while Sound of Freedom is presently the tenth highest-grossing film of 2023 at the domestic box office, ahead of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and behind John Wick: Chapter 4, the film currently sits in the eighteenth position on the worldwide box office chart for 2023, ahead of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and behind The Nun II.
Obviously, this disparity is related to Sound of Freedom’s deliberate, targeted rollout overseas, where the film’s popularity has been decidedly regional in nature, as Sound of Freedom has been most popular overseas in Central, Latin, and South America, including Colombia, where much of the anti-child trafficking crime thriller film is set.
Moreover, while Sound of Freedom has been released in the Middle East, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom and is set to be released in October in France, Germany, and Spain, the film, unlike its Hollywood blockbuster counterparts, has otherwise gone unreleased in much of Asia and Europe, as, outside of Central, Latin, North, and South America, the film has presently grossed approximately $3.6 million in Australia, $2 million in Saudi Arabia, and $2.6 million in the United Kingdom.
Latin America Loves Sound of Freedom
Given the fact that Sound of Freedom was directed by Mexican-born Alejandro Monteverde and produced by Mexican-born Eduardo Verastegui, it’s hardly surprising that the most successful market for the film, outside the United States, has been Mexico, where the film has presently grossed approximately $11.6 million.
Outside of Mexico, North America, the most successful market for Sound of Freedom is Colombia, the film’s primary setting, where the film has presently grossed over $4.9 million, while the film has also grossed approximately $3.5 million in Argentina, $3.8 million in Brazil, and $3 million in Peru.
The film’s current $11.6 million gross in Mexico places Sound of Freedom ahead of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which grossed just over $11 million in Mexico, as indeed Sound of Freedom is also presently ahead of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One in the Latin American countries Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Peru.
A Sleeper International Box Office Success Story
As the unexpected commercial success of Sound in Freedom in North America forced the film’s distributor, Angel Studios, to hastily develop an overseas distribution model for the film, and one that was targeted to specific overseas markets, the film’s overseas box office has, accordingly, been extremely impressive.
Indeed, Sound of Freedom only marks the second theatrical release for the Utah-based Angel Studios, following the biblical drama film His Only Son, which was released theatrically earlier this year and grossed over $12 million at the domestic box office against a reported budget of just $250,000.
Moreover, as the overseas box office performance of Sound of Freedom seemingly pales in comparison to that of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, neither of those films were profitable theatrically due to their prodigious marketing and production costs, while the crowd-funding-supported Sound of Freedom is on pace to become one of the most profitable films in recent history.
To put the international box office performance of Sound of Freedom into clearer perspective, if the faith-based makers of Sound of Freedom had been told, even six months ago, that the polarizing film would gross approximately $47 million, the film’s current overseas box office total, at the worldwide box office, it’s hard to imagine that they wouldn’t have looked at this as a great blessing.
