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The Sound of Freedomthe surprise summer hit about child sex traffickingis bringing in big numbers at the box office despite controversy over its lead actors QAnon ties, thanks to its immense popularity among conservative audiences and promotion by right-wing politicians and media figures ranging from Donald Trump to Sean Hannity.
Former President Donald Trump held a Sound of Freedom screening at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Wednesday, with Trump allies Steve Bannon, Kari Lake and more in attendance.
Trumpwho appointed Tim Ballard, the films inspiration, to a State Department human trafficking advisory council in 2019 and has reportedly made exaggerated claims about human traffickingpreviously shared the trailer to the film on his social media platform, Truth Social, stating Ben Carson had urged him to post it.
Sean Hannity interviewed the films star, Jim Caviezel, on his Fox News show Tuesday, praising his work in the film and urging his viewers to see it because people need to know this evil exists.
Conservative professor and podcast host Jordan Peterson interviewed Caviezel and the films real-life inspiration, former government agent Tim Ballard, in a lengthy discussion where Ballard said he condemns most of what he sees with conspiracy theories, but claimed children in Africa suffer from adrenochrome harvestingreferencing a conspiracy theory that baselessly claims the blood of children is forcibly taken to develop a chemical that is consumed to stay young.
On Bannons podcast, Caviezel also espoused the adrenochrome theory, claiming the demand for the chemical is to blame for child trafficking, and falsely stating it is "10 times more potent than heroin" and "has some mystical qualities as far as making you look younger."
Caviezel also appeared on a conservative YouTube show hosted by Benny Johnson, where the two largely discussed religion, lamenting the alleged removal of God from movies and said Christians are marginalized.
Johnson asked Caviezel to respond to the medias criticism of Sound of Freedom, to which he said he hoped a millstone be hung around their necks, that they be cast into the sea should they ever hurt one of these little ones, a reference to the Matthew 18:6 Bible verse.
Some elected officials are championing the film, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who tweeted Wow. Wow. Wow. GO SEE #SoundOfFreedom.
The Sound of Freedom stars Caviezel as Ballard, following a fictionalized pursuit to rescue Honduran children who were kidnapped to Colombia based on Ballards real-life rescue missions. Ballard, who once worked for the Department of Homeland Security, is the founder of Operation Underground Railroad, an organization that conducts sting operations to rescue children from sex traffickers. The film has stirred controversy and become a culture war target because of Caviezels ties to conspiracy theories and investigative reports suggesting Operation Underground Railroad has exaggerated its role in sex-trafficking rescues. Caviezel has previously spoken at conventions for QAnon, the conspiracy theory that a core group of Satan-worshiping global elites run the world, and are involved in a global child trafficking ring. Both Caviezel and Ballard have voiced openness to the adrenochrome conspiracy theory, and Ballard previously suggested support for the debunked theory that furniture retailer Wayfair was selling children online. The film has a 74% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with some publications, like Variety, praised it as a compelling movie that shines an authentic light on one of the crucial criminal horrors of our time. Others were more critical, like Rolling Stone, which criticized it for fetishizing the torture of child victims and considered it a gateway to far-right conspiracy theories.
Neal Harmon, chief executive of the films distributor Angel Studios, told The New York Times: Anybody who watches this film knows that this film is not about conspiracy theories, claiming its not about politics.
Because Ballard and Caviezel have spoken of conspiracy theories in interviews with right-wing personalities while promoting The Sound of Freedom, the film is being marketed to QAnon believers, Mike Rothschild, a journalist who wrote The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything, told NPR.
$100 million. Thats how much The Sound of Freedom has grossed at the domestic box office so far since its July 4 opening. Thats a bigger domestic total this year than hit films like M3GAN, Cocaine Bear, Air and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Its the 16th highest grossing domestic film this yearand its within $10 million of surpassing The Flash and Scream VI.
Box Office Hit Sound Of Freedom ControversyIncluding QAnon Ties And False Claims Theaters Are Sabotaging ScreeningsExplained (Forbes)
The Adrenochrome Conspiracy TheoryPushed By Sound Of Freedom StarExplained (Forbes)
Jim Caviezels Faith-Based Thriller Sound of Freedom Crosses $100 Million at Box Office (Variety)
I'm an explainers and trends reporter for Forbes. I previously worked on Forbes's wealth team where I covered billionaires. I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2022 and spent that summer working on Forbes's Top Colleges list. Before that, I served as a news editor for Penn's student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, as well as a digital intern for NBC News and a foreign desk intern for Vox.
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Here Are The Right-Wing FiguresFrom Donald Trump To Steve BannonChampioning Surprise Hit Sound Of Freedom - Forbes