AMC can’t stop ‘Sound of Freedom’ conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theories involving viewer suppression of the film Sound of Freedom continue even as the film was top-three in last weekend’s box office gross sales.

The film was produced by indie company Angel Studios and stars Jim Caviezel as Tim Ballard, a producer on the project who in reality left his position as a former Homeland Security investigations agent to start the anti-child sex trafficking organization Operation Underground Railroad.

Sound of Freedom made $19.7 million at the box office last weekend, coming in third behind Insidious: The Red Door and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, respectively. On Tuesday, Sound of Freedom overtook the top spot, raking in nearly $3.9 million—about $375,000 more than Insidious made the same day.

“For this pretty small budget movie to make $50 million at the box office is pretty impressive,” Gabriel Rossman, a professor of sociology at UCLA, told Newsweek via phone. “If that’s what it looks like when it’s suppressed, I’d like to see what it’s like when it’s not suppressed.”

A slew of ticket sales has been credited to Angel Studios’ “Pay It Forward” policy, in which moviegoers can purchase tickets for others who lack financial means and apply to receive them, according to IndieWire. Larger groups can also purchase tickets in bulk and redeem a portion of those at no cost.

Since its widespread release, conservatives have laid blame on major chains like AMC Theatres for attempting to allegedly alienate viewership for the film.

One such accusation from a TikTok user claimed that she and her daughters were evacuated from an AMC theater inside a mall more than halfway into the film and were financially reimbursed without explanation. The video was viewed over 800,000 times.

Newer posts are being spread across social media platforms like Twitter. One tweet, viewed over 2.3 million times, was made by an alleged AMC employee.

“I work at AMC and just got fired for refusing to add this liquid to a customer’s soda. We were instructed specifically to serve this to Sound of Freedom audiences. I am a microbiology student and took it to the lab to examine and found what looks like nanobots inside.”

The tweet was later accompanied by a Twitter “community note,” which called the claim “disinformation” due to photos accompanying the tweet being stolen from other sources—including an image of a vial being taken from a 2020 Reddit post. The other photo of nanobots was from a University of Pennsylvania scholarly article from 2019.

A TikTok user who had exited a screening of the film said there were “shenanigans” going on as part of his viewing.

“AMC, I don’t know what’s going on here but first off, the AC [air conditioning] was out when we went to watch the movie,” the man said. “I’ve seen someone else post something, too, that also saw it at AMC and their AC was out. As soon as we walked into the theater it was hot as heck.”

The man also claimed that the theater, whose location was never mentioned, also kept the lights on during the entire duration of the film. “They’re trying to make it unenjoyable.”

Conservative Matt Wallace, who has 1.1 million followers, tweeted that “Hollywood desperately tried to block this from theaters.”

These various claims and theories have been strongly disputed by AMC CEO Adam Aron.

“Really bizarre [fear, uncertainty and doubt] floating around Twitter that we are suppressing attendance for Sound of Freedom,” Aron tweeted on Saturday. “Yesterday we showed that movie 3,000 times at our 570 U.S. theatres and more than 100,000 people watched it @AMCTheatres. Misinformation on Twitter is astonishing. Bots? Haters?”

Jeffrey Harmon, the co-founder of Angel Studios, responded to Aron’s tweet and thanked him for showing the film nationwide at a high volume.

“I want to personally thank you for how amazing of a partner you have been,” Harmon wrote. “Many of your managers have reached out to me and personally told me they love what is happening and have worked so hard to bring a great experience to Sound of Freedom fans.”

Aron chimed in on the issue again on Wednesday as the theories continue to spread, tweeting, “Sadly, conspiracy theorists are so prevalent in America.”

“So much garbage information is spread,” Aron wrote. “More than ONE MILLION people have watched Sound of Freedom at AMC Theatres. More than at any other theatre chain on the planet. Yet people falsely claim otherwise. It is so bizarre.”

Newsweek reached out to AMC via email for comment.

Stefano Da Frè, director and producer with Rosso Films International, told Newsweek via email that whenever crowdfunded projects such as Sound of Freedom are made outside the Hollywood system and become major box office hits, their audiences “become very protective because they know its Hollywood counterparts don’t want to take financial losses on films like Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.

“Secondly, the subject matter in Sound of Freedom itself is very risky, highlighting sex trafficking in Colombia and around the world,” he said. “This issue has rightly brought forward many conspiracy theories, especially with the auspiciousness of Jeffrey Epstein.

“There is a motto in publicity that there is no ‘bad press’ for a film, and it looks like fans of Sound of Freedom are definitely having their day in the sun with its financial success.”

The conspiracy theories have also been disputed by Ballard, who has been linked by some to right-wing conspiracy group QAnon. He dismissed such allegations during a recent Fox & Friends appearance, and he also rejected claims that AMC is trying to prevent people from seeing the film.

“Our theatrical partners at AMC, CineMark, Regal, and beyond have been absolutely wonderful to work with—they’re helping us add theaters as we speak in the middle the busy summer movie season,” Matthew Faraci of Angel Studios previously told Newsweek.

Caviezel’s attempt to dissociate the film from QAnon has arguably made matters worse. He reportedly was unaware of any link between the movie and the group prior to filming in 2018.

“Now, by way of analogy, if I were the apostle Saul (Paul) and I’m a Pharisee, I’m going to go after the Christians and take them down,” the actor told conservative Turning Point USA‘s Charlie Kirk on July 11. “Now, let’s remove Christians and make it QAnon, I’m going to destroy them because the Romans told me they are evil.

“I’m going to destroy them because my own church staff, my fellow Pharisees said evil—Well, I’m going to take them out.”

Caviezel then said that there is no such thing as QAnon, just “Q” and “anons”—a phrase used by the conspiracists to deflect from people it supports who deny ties to the movement.

In what is a pretty weak box office year, according to Rossman, the film continues to bring in a certain segment of the population. The rule of thumb with all films is that box office gross tends to decrease by half after the opening weekend.

“It seems like they’re doing a crossover mainstream marketing strategy where they have a movie where its core audience is its Christian audience, and a certain amount is targeted toward that audience,” he said.

Update 07/13/23, 1:26 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from Gabriel Rossman and Stefano Da Frè.