It was a tight race, but Disney/Lucasfilm’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” appears to have won the July 4th holiday at the domestic box-office.
The fifth and final outing of Dr. Jones took in $11.7 million on Tuesday, coming in just ahead of the $11.5 million in direct ticket sales that the Jim Caviezel-led thriller “Sound of Freedom” pulled in on its opening day on July 4th.
However, ‘Freedom’ is the real story here. A non-studio independent title with faith-based elements, it is playing in 2,000 less theaters and was also made for considerably cheaper at a production budget of just $15 million.
In one day, the Alejandro Monteverde-directed “Sound of Freedom” has managed to outgross the full domestic runs of recent awards contenders like “Banshees of Inisherin” and “TAR,” and nearly doubled current indie darling “Past Lives”. It is well on track to be the most profitable indie film of the year.
The film’s backer, Angel Studios, is reportedly using a patent-pending crowdfunding platform called Pay It Forward, which lets moviegoers purchase tickets for other people. It seems to have helped with more than two million tickets sold in pre-sales, and an additional $2.6 million raised by that crowdfunding avenue which would bring the total opening day gross of the film up to an astonishing $14.2 million.
The based on a true story tale follows homeland security officer Tim Ballard, who took rescuing abducted children around the globe into his own hands. The movie nabbed an A+ CinemaScore yesterday, which is fairly standard for a faith-based-fuelled title, whilst critics reviews so far have been very positive.
Source: The Christian Post, Deadline, World of Reel
