Money Laundering in Hollywood

Before Dracula closes the book on 2023, let’s address the elephant in the room. Sound of Freedom. The movie that cracked the Top 10 for 2023 but played to empty theaters “cause Biden don’t want us to watch it.” Or at least that’s what Doomsday claimed. How much did it actually make? Let’s find out.


Sources:

deadline.com/2024/03/sound-of-freedom-movie-box-office-angel-studios-tickets-1235842962/

twitter.com/danpgsimpson


Domestic Gross: $184.1M

International Gross: $66.4M

Worldwide Gross: $250.6M


Pay-It Forward (a.k.a. money laundered)

*my lawyer SnoBorderZero has advised me to say “allegedly.”

$26M in ticket sales were “donated.” $21.7M of which were claimed. That means $4.3M in ticket sales were unclaimed. Those are the “empty theaters” in blue states that generated media coverage on right-wing sites.

Total costs & fees were $91.6M.

$159M in profit. That’s split among the studio (Angel Studios), the crowdfunders (yes, this movie was crowdfunded) and the filmmakers/castmembers with backend deals.

I don’t know how much “donated” movie came from overseas. Gonna assume this was just in the States. So if you remove $26M from the $184.1M domestic gross, that’s $158.1M. That drops it down to 15th for 2023. Meaning that it made less than Indiana Jones and Mission: Impossible, the two movies it opened opposite against. That makes sense. Sound of Freedom wasn’t getting played in large auditoriums in most theaters. It did most of its legit business with older crowds and in right-wing markets. But… 15th is still better than Transformers, Fast X, Aquaman, The Flash and The Marvels. That’s hilarious.