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