The blockbuster phenomenon Sound of Freedom is already topping Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’s per-screen average.
This is mind-boggling.
Movies just don’t hold on like this anymore, especially movies in wide release. And yet here we are…
After six days in wide release, Dead Reckoning averaged $1,225 per screen in 4,327 theaters on Monday.
After 14 days in wide release (that continues to widen), Sound of Freedom averaged $1,517 per screen in more than a thousand fewer theaters: 3,265.
This is Sound of Freedom’s second Monday in wide release, and its prescreen average is beating Dead Reckoning’s first Monday in wide release, and you can bet Dead Reckoning had a $100 million promotion campaign behind it as well as Tom Cruise’s second-to-none star power.
Sound of Freedom almost beat Dead Reckoning Monday to gain the top spot.
Sound of Freedom earned $4.954 million to Dead Reckoning’s $5.3 million.
Currently, Sound of Freedom sits at 90.7 million, compared to Dead Reckoning’s $83.7 million.
For context, on its second Monday, Indiana Jones and Dial of Destiny averaged just $703 per screen and grossed just $3.2 million. Currently, Dial of Destiny sits at $147 million. On its second Monday, The Little Mermaid remake earned $4.6 million with a per-screen average of $1,057. The Little Mermaid has so far grossed $294 million.
Not that Sound of Freedom will end up grossing $2 billion worldwide like James Cameron’s Avatar films, but this hold reminds me of the Avatar films, by which I mean it is impossible to guess the number where Sound of Freedom finally lands.
Get a load of this…
“There have only been 10 wide-release movies in box office history that have had a second-weekend increase greater than 35% over their opening weekend,” explained Brandon Purdie, Head of Theatrical Distribution for Angel Studios. “All of them achieved this milestone during Christmas. Angel Studios is the only studio to accomplish this feat during the summer blockbuster season[.]”
So why is this happening? What makes Sound of Freedom different, special, and a legitimate phenomenon?
To begin with, by all accounts, it’s a well-made movie — and this is everything, the only thing that matters. The Sound of Freedom audience is lost in the story and cares about the characters. Rather than being overbearing, you feel the Christian theme more than you hear it. There’s nothing preachy. There’s no rhetoric. It’s a good movie people enjoy. It’s a movie that makes them feel something, and that’s when movies work best.
This is why the corporate media and Hollywood are terrified of Sound of Freedom—it’s a good movie. After two decades of striving, right-of-center creators have improved their craft and are producing quality content. Quality is the only thing that will beat Hollywood, and Hollywood knows that.
And Hollywood knows one other thing: Its own quality is diminishing rapidly.
The second reason Sound of Freedom is soaring is the corporate media’s seething hatred. We saw this 20 years ago with Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ. Gibson not only delivered one of the greatest movies of this new century, but the media’s 24/7 hate campaign against The Passion made people curious. Before it was over, Gibson had made a few hundred million dollars from a movie the bigots in mainstream Hollywood refused to distribute.
The political right’s war on Hollywood is similar to our war against the corporate media. It will not be won through boycotts, complaining, or offering something that’s simply conservative. The corporate media is losing because New Media has moved beyond whining about bias into actual reporting and analysis. New Media is now good at what it does, better than the corporate media. Quality journalism is winning the media war.
The better our side gets at telling compelling stories driven by fascinating characters and universal themes, the more our entertainment audience will grow. The better we get at pushing our ideas through theme and character as opposed to rhetoric and lectures, the more nervous Hollywood will become.
Everyone thought the success of The Passion of the Christ would change everything. It didn’t because our side wasn’t ready. Our artists didn’t have enough experience to take advantage of the opportunity, the opening. There’s only one way to beat Hollywood: produce better content than Hollywood. Being conservative and Christian is not enough. The stories, characters, and themes must be superior.
Sound of Freedom is a box office phenomenon and terrifying the fake media because it’s a superior product. It really is that simple.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.