“Sound of Freedom” resonated with large swaths of the American right — including QAnon-aligned conspiracy theorists. One of the film’s most striking features was that it ended with a call to action: Using a QR code, fans were invited to purchase tickets for other moviegoers, a “pay it forward” donation system that Angel has since integrated into many of its projects. Critics argued that Angel was essentially goosing its own box office receipts by persuading a passionate fan base to bankroll phantom tickets: enamored zealots shelling out for empty seats.
“They were harnessing people’s fear and outrage over child sex trafficking in a very cynical way,” Will Sloan, a film critic and podcaster, said. “But at the end of the day I think they’ve found a cynical but clever way to exploit their market. And I guess I can’t begrudge them too much for that.”
Angel’s marketing savvy propelled “Sound of Freedom” to be one of the top 10 highest-grossing films at the domestic box office in 2023. Alejandro Monteverde, the film’s director and co-writer, shot “Sound of Freedom” in 2018, and spent years trying and failing to secure a distributor. “So when Angel came along, it was like finding a glass of water in the desert,” he said.
Monteverde is in postproduction on “Zero A.D.,” a biblical epic about King Herod that Angel will release later this year. (The concept was a hit with guild members, who voted to finance it.) Though it tells a religious story, Monteverde was quick to point out that it wasn’t just for Christian audiences. “If you are a person of faith, you will see it through that lens,” he said. “But if you are not, you will still be able to engage with it, just like someone who doesn’t usually watch sci-fi can still enjoy a great sci-fi movie.”
For Neal Harmon, a movie like “Zero A.D.” isn’t niche: By design and by its very nature, it’s mainstream. He added that this was true throughout Hollywood history. “Once upon a time, when Cecil B. DeMille made ‘The Ten Commandments,’ it was the blockbuster of the decade — the most expensive film ever made,” he said. “Was that movie faith-based? Well, it was based on the Bible, but was just a huge epic — a story that everyone could be excited about.”
He doesn’t understand why that’s no longer the case.
“Somewhere along the line, that changed,” he said. “Now we have a ‘faith’ category, and suddenly that makes it smaller. I don’t even know why that distinction exists, or how it’s helpful.”
