The vast majority of major film critics are boycotting Sound of Freedom, with outlets including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Hollywood Reporter declining to run reviews of the recently released anti-child-trafficking drama starring Jim Caviezel.
Among major news outlets, only Variety, Rolling Stone, and RogerEbert.com have reviewed the movie since it opened on July 4.
Breitbart News sent inquiries to the film editors at the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Hollywood Reporter. None has replied. A spokeswoman for the L.A. Times sent a statement: “The Los Angeles Times does not review every film that’s released theatrically.”
In the case of the New York Times, Sound of Freedom has been effectively wiped off the face of the earth.
Not only has the paper of record declined to review the movie, it has not mentioned the movie in any form in its entertainment reporting — not even a box office report — a search of the paper’s site shows.
The blackout comes as Sound of Freedom outperformed expectations on its opening day, placing No. 1 at the domestic box office and outgrossing Disney’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny while playing on far fewer screens.
Sound of Freedom, the anti-child-trafficking drama starring Jim Caviezel, has emerged as the No. 1 grossing movie on July 4, surpassing Disney’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny while playing on far fewer screens. https://t.co/efc8adurDG
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) July 6, 2023
For the weekend, the movie ranked No. 3 at the box office with $18.2 million, again surpassing Indy 5 in terms of per-screen averages.
It remains unclear if Sound of Freedom distributor Angel Studios made the movie available for critics to screen prior to release. The distributor didn’t reply to a request for comment from Breitbart News.
In the case of movies that don’t screen for critics, news outlets frequently send reviewers to cinemas the day the movie opens and run a review the following day or week.
Sound of Freedom currently holds a 99 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and notched an “A+” Cinema Score rating.
Based on the life and career Tim Ballard, Sound of Freedom stars Jim Caviezel as a Homeland Security agent who quits his job in order to bring child traffickers to justice.
The movie was shelved indefinitely by the Walt Disney Company when it acquired 21st Century Fox.Producers spent the next three years extricating the movie from Disney’s hands and raising money to release it.
The few professional critics who have reviewed it were mixed in their reaction.
Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman called it a “compelling movie that shines an authentic light on one of the crucial criminal horrors of our time, one that Hollywood has mostly shied away from.”
But Rolling Stone jeered at the movie, calling it a “triumph for QAnon believers.”
Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at dng@breitbart.com
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