'Sound of Freedom' Has Now Made More Money in U.S. Than Latest 'Indiana Jones' and 'Mission: Impossible'

Director Alejandro Monteverde admitted the controversial film's box office success comes as a "complete surprise, including to myself"

Sound of Freedom, despite mixed reactions and controversies, has now earned more at the domestic box office than big-budget sequels in the Indiana Jones and Mission: Impossible franchises.

The movie has so far made $174 million in the U.S. since its July 4 release, according to Deadline. That's more than Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny's $172.9 million (released June 30) and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One‘s $160.8 million (released July 12).

Worldwide, Harrison Ford's Dial of Destiny has earned over $375 million, while Tom Cruise's Dead Reckoning Part One has passed $522 million. Sound of Freedom is set to rollout internationally in different territories over the next few months.

For comparison, Variety reported that Sound of Freedom's budget was about $14.5 million, whereas Dead Reckoning and Dial of Destiny cost closer to $300 million each, before an estimated $100 million for marketing.

Related: 'Sound of Freedom' Director Says Controversy Surrounding the Surprise-Hit Film 'Breaks My Heart'

Sound of Freedom is loosely based on a true story about a man helping rescue children from a human trafficking operation in Colombia. Its star, Passion of the Christ actor Jim Caviezel, has caused controversy for promoting QAnon conspiracy theories while promoting the film on far-right platforms.

Writer/director Alejandro Monteverde has spoken out about the "heartbreaking" backlash, saying his views differ from the actor's standpoints.

Disney, which released Lucasfilm's Indiana Jones sequel, at one point owned Sound of Freedom when it purchased Fox back in 2019.

Eventually, though, its producers "raised a little bit of money and bought the film back," Monteverde told Variety. "Then we were thinking, ‘Okay, let’s go out [and shop it].’ Then COVID. Boom. People were always telling you even before they saw the film, ‘Right now, people want to see uplifting films.' "

"Then, the Harmon brothers [who founded Angel Studios] came in, and they just had a completely different way of marketing a film that I’ve never seen."

Angel Studios crowd-funded money for its marketing budget, which it says has now been paid back to those who contributed. It also included an unusual box office tactic: A video with Caviezel at the end of the credits encourages moviegoers to pay it forward by buying more tickets to the movie.

Director Monteverde indicated that he wasn't fully on board with that campaign at first.

"They told me, ‘We’re going to put a video at the end of where Jim will talk. I was like, ‘Arghhhhh.’ I became a pain. And they told me, ‘Alejandro, let us do our work. You have to trust us.’ And we made a deal," he said, claiming that the pay-it-forward method added "under 10 percent" to its overall box office haul.

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About the post-credit pay-it-forward video, he added to the Los Angeles Times, "Now, if you ask me, 'Alejandro, if it was your [move], would you have that?' I will say no. But that’s why I’m not a distributor. If I was a distributor, I’d surely collapse the company because I’d be all about the art. So I respect and admire the work that Angel Studios does, because it’s not an easy movie to market."

Questioned about not having fans donate to an organization working against human-trafficking and instead more movie tickets, the filmmaker argued "awareness [brought by the movie] creates change more than sending $20 to one [organization]."

Monteverde, who started the project in 2015, admitted he didn't think Sound of Freedom was going to be released. Now, he says it has become a "phenomenon."

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"Nobody, no one, thought that this movie was going to make the box office it’s making. It’s a complete surprise, including to myself," he told the LA Times. "I thought this movie was never going to see the light of day. So I ended up giving away my points. I’m not going to make $1."

He said the near-$200-million box office performance means Sound of Freedom has transcended to "become a bipartisan film." Monteverde added that how the movie does in other markets will truly demonstrate the film's appeal.

"We’re going to see what happens when [it’s released] internationally, because the politics are here. If internationally, we come back with a big price tag, then you can’t deny that," he said. "These same conspiracy theories do not exist in Mexico, Argentina, France, Italy. I’m going to Colombia for the premiere, so I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen. I want to keep it humble. But I’m feeling excited."

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