As if the underperformance of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny could get any worse, it has now come to light that the crowd-funded faith-based drama Sound of Freedom actually outperformed it on July 4 — at least, technically speaking.
Even though the initial tabulations for the Independence Day box office seemed to point to Dial of Destiny slightly outperforming the Jim Caveziel drama about child trafficking as we previously reported, the positions of each film seem to have reversed following the final ticket count — though there are some caveats to that.
Sound of Freedom’s unlikely success in the face of a Goliath of a blockbuster franchise may have to do with a unique marketing gimmick implemented by Angel Studios, the Christian-focused distributor. You see, just like Angel Studios’ previous theatrical outing, His Only Son, moviegoers actually have the ability to buy tickets for strangers in a program called Pay It Forward. As IndieWire explained:
“The distributor says of its $14.2 million haul, $2.6 million came from people overpaying through those Pay It Forward ticket sales.”
On paper, Sound of Freedom’s $14.2 million exceeds Dial of Destiny’s estimated $11.7 million. However, there is some nuance to the comparison that makes it skew more apples-to-oranges. For instance, not only is the Pay It Forward gross included in this amount, but presales as well. Jared Geesey, an Angel Studios executive, also explained to the publication that the figure also includes “over $10 million in presales, that included tickets sold through July 9.”
In all likelihood, this development would seem to indicate the number of warm bodies who actually showed up to theaters to watch Dial of Destiny outpaced the Sound of Freedom crowds. But it is nevertheless impressive that a lower-budget movie could even compete with the likes of Harrison Ford’s grand swan song, even if it is a technical knockout.
Another apples-to-oranges, yet impressive, comparison can be found in each film’s Rotten Tomatoes scores. As of this writing, Dial of Destiny holds a meager 69 percent, based on 343 reviews, while Sound of Freedom holds a rather commendable 88 percent. However, this figure must also be taken with a big ‘ol grain of salt since the score is only based on 16 reviews so far. All of these comparisons make me wish there was an “Indiana Freedom” double-feature meme to match the absurdity of the Barbenheimer movement at this point.
The bitterest pill of all for Dial of Destiny‘s distributor, Disney, to swallow, is no doubt the fact that they could have been the company to bring Sound of Freedom to theaters had they not cast the film aside from 20th Century Fox’s slate of upcoming releases upon acquiring the movie studio. Of course, considering the controversies surrounding the film it’s somewhat understandable why the House of Mouse avoided it.
