“Sound of Freedom”: how to make a fortune with a mediocre movie
Twenty years ago Barbra Streisand sued a photographer who had taken an aerial shot of her home. Her effort to suppress the photo brought it to the attention of millions. Hence the “Streisand effect”: try to censor something and you risk making it bigger. Today a new name is needed for a related phenomenon: claiming to be repressed to generate hype. “Sound of Freedom”, a new film about Tim Ballard, an anti-sex-trafficking activist, is a case study in how the culture war can be turned into profit.
On July 20th the film, which was released on July 4th, became the first post-pandemic independent movie to make $100m at the box office in America. It is now up to $164m. Though trailing “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer”, it has made more money than the latest offering of “Mission Impossible”, a money-spinning franchise. It cost less than $15m to make and its star, Jim Caviezel, last appeared in a notable movie, “The Passion of the Christ”, in 2004. It has had almost no advertising—of the normal sort.
The film is a reasonably enjoyable action movie. It follows a version of Mr Ballard’s life story, as he is radicalised by his work combating child porn at the Department of Homeland Security, quits and tries to rescue children himself. He infiltrates rebel-held territory in Colombia, single-handedly beats to death a slave-driving child-rapist and rescues his victim, then miraculously flees by stolen speedboat amid a storm of gunfire.
2023-08-10 07:34:35
Post from www.economist.com
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