Much has been written – and deservedly so – about Barbenheimer fittingly dropping a bomb of its own on the box office, but individually and collectively the might of Greta Gerwig’s Mattel masterpiece and Christopher Nolan’s atomic epic are still lagging behind Sound of Freedom when it comes to naming 2023’s single biggest commercial phenomenon.
It sounds ridiculous when you consider the double-feature of the century netted upwards of $500 million from theaters in a single weekend and hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down, but let’s not forget they’re both productions backed by a major studio with an acclaimed and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker at the helm that cost at least nine figure apiece and rode a wave of marketing buzz and social media hype all the way to the bank.
On the other side of the coin, Sound of Freedom was shot in the summer of 2018, abandoned by Disney, rejected by all of the major streaming services, and yet has somehow managed to permanently dislodge Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One on the domestic charts on its way to a haul on home soil that’s in excess of $130 million, and could realistically chase down $200 million by the time the dust settles.
If you thought Sound of Freedom was done there, though, then think again; because it’s going international. Angel Studios has announced plans to expand into an additional 21 markets including the UK, Australia, Spain, South Africa and Latin America, and if it manages to enjoy even a fraction of that success elsewhere, then it’ll only enhance its reputation as the year’s biggest smash by any metric.