Some of the world's biggest streamers may have turned away the surprise blockbuster of the summer, Sound of Freedom, some years ago, but one social media user with more than a million followers has made it sound like it happened yesterday.
One of the producers, Eduardo Verástegui, recently revealed that companies such as Netflix and Amazon turned him down when he approached them about distribution, with some "not even even answering my phone calls."
"After eight years of trying you start losing hope, because people are telling you that this movie is not going to be good business for them," Verástegui told Newsweek exclusively.
The independent film, released on July 4, tells the story of Tim Ballard, a former government agent who quit his job to save children from child sex trafficking.
Thanks to a grassroots marketing campaign, Sound of Freedom is the 10th-highest grossing film of 2023 in the U.S. so far.
But the movie almost never made it to the big screen, or the small screen, for that matter. Sound of Freedom finished filming in 2018 and its distribution rights were owned by 20th Century film studios until Disney acquired them in 2019.
As a result of the acquisition, Sound of Freedom sat in limbo until Verástegui wrangled the rights back off Disney and set off to find a new distributor.
He spoke to news site, Breitbart, about how he and the film's other producers went "knocking on doors with Netflix, Amazon, and other studios," but none took it on.
"Some of them, they just didn't even answer my phone calls," he said, and added, "We sent hundreds and hundreds of messages from different people. Nothing."
This prompted a reaction from YouTuber Matt Wallace, who took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share his thoughts.
"NEWS ALERT: Netflix and Amazon Prime JUST TURNED DOWN Sound of Freedom (One of the most popular movies of the year)! THEY DO NOT WANT THE TRUTH ABOUT PEDOWOOD TO COME OUT," Wallace tweeted, prompting some X users to threaten to boycott the streaming services for "censoring" the film.
"Wow. Someone needs to start the Bud Light campaign. This is way worse," wrote Delta Dawn, referring to the boycott started over the beer brand's partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Another reacted to Wallace's tweet, posting: "Hmm...then it seems I will have to contemplate cancelling both subscriptions," and one X user responded with: "Freedom of speech. Ah, not on these 2 platforms."
🚨 NEWS ALERT: Netflix and Amazon Prime JUST TURNED DOWN Sound of Freedom (One of the most popular movies of the year)! THEY DO NOT WANT THE TRUTH ABOUT PEDOWOOD TO COME OUT 🚨 pic.twitter.com/U4ETPcvSPo
— Matt Wallace (@MattWallace888) August 27, 2023
Newsweek has contacted Netflix, Amazon's Prime Video and Wallace by email for comment.
There is no indication that Netflix or Prime Video have been approached to license the film for its Streaming Video on Demand window following its run in theaters.
Independent distributor Angel Studios likely retains the streaming rights for the film to debut on their own free online streaming platform angel.com, and Newsweek has reached out to the studio to clarify who holds the film's streaming rights.
A range of conspiracy theories have circulated about Sound of Freedom since its July release, one of which was the belief major theater chains were sabotaging screenings of the film to stop people from seeing it.
Some, such as Wallace, believed the reason for that was to cover up what they believed were so-called pedophile rings that existed in Hollywood.
For director, Alejandro Monteverde, the conspiracy theories were hurtful as a filmmaker.
"The main problem was labeling. That is [the] most dangerous [thing] that we can do to each other, is to label ourselves," he told Newsweek in a recent interview.
"If you're gonna dare label something, you better have a PhD or be an expert," Monteverde said.
"They didn't take the time to ask questions like, 'what was the motive of making this movie?' All I wanted was to make a movie to create a conversation, a social dialogue, on this subject matter on child trafficking," he explained.
"I didn't want to give answers, I just wanted to propose a theme and to create a question, that's it [...] but it got out of control."
Monteverde said it was the more than 20 million people who had been to see the film that helped propel it to success.
"The success has happened from people telling people go see this film because[...]this movie has been attacked in many ways, and the audience are the ones that came out and defended it," he said.
Update, 8/29/2023, 7:49 a.m. ET: This story was updated to add a quote from Eduardo Verástegui.
Read more on Sound of Freedom
- Jim Caviezel was hospitalized making "Sound of Freedom"
- "Sound of Freedom" director reveals "dangerous" attacks movie faced
- Why 'Sound of Freedom' isn't part of SAG strike
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