Opened July 4th on 2,634 movie screens, by August 3rd it had increased to 3,411 screens and ended up grossing $182 million in the US over it’s run, so I’m not sure how that’s a “block”.

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl4254237441/?ref_=bo_tt_gr_1

The real conspiracy is how right wingers pumped up the numbers by buying tickets and not going.

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/sound-of-freedom-amc-ticket-sales/

This has to be one of the saddest attempts at astroturfing for that pathetic movie.

Everything you hear at the barbershop is true, isn’t it? You can always double check in on the conspiracy theory loving social media network of your choice. You know, the one that always reflects the exact flavor of conspiracy you like to believe. Or here is one of the non-shilled reviews:

With the amount of attention, ratings, and d*mn near sell out crowds this film is garnering from almost every showing here at my local cinema I must say I expected something far more powerful and moving than this.

For starters, I’ll say this film featured a good cast. Everyone involved gave good performances, including the child actors. As for Jim Caviezel, I think he’s a far better actor than what he was given here. The subject is obviously very important to him and he gave a good performance but the material was just weak.

However, what holds up this average film is the cinematography, good performances, and a good score. But that’s all there really is here.

The film lacks depth in story, character, and emotion. Now, admittedly, the first act does hold some emotion, but the film does very little to nothing else to keep the emotion going. It’s all very surface and doesn’t develop further in anyway. The story and characters are underdeveloped and at certain moments the “hard hitting” emotion came off as emotional manipulation or a reminder of “this stuff is bad” like I get it child sex trafficking is bad but do something else. The only amount of engagement or care I could give was just to the fact that this was based on a true story.

That’s definitely where the film lost points for me. You have a subject matter that literally everyone can get behind, so nobody needs convincing that this is wrong. You’re literally just preaching to the choir, so instead focus on making a good film.

Finally, this films rating puzzles me. Before going in, I was anticipating an R rated film based on the subject matter and audience reactions. I thought if this film is as powerful as people are claiming it to be, then R rated for sure. But it’s PG13. Why? For a movie that claims to want to unveil the horrible ugly truth of child sex trafficking it pulls a lot of punches and lacked any significant impact. So I don’t know what is trying to be accomplished here. If it’s a faith-based film, then it’s an extremely dull faith-based film, historical drama? Definitely needed more drama, action/thriller? Well, it had neither. The subject is powerful, yes, but this film has no bite and packs, no punch, and nothing new is being done here.

This film has clearly struck a chord with a lot movie goers which rightfully so the subject matter is an important one but at the end of the film I couldn’t help but wonder that maybe it would’ve been better to take the $14.5 million that was spent to make this movie and maybe just donate it to organizations that fight this war.

Overall, I just found this film to be tremendously underwhelming and lacking. It definitely didn’t help when Jim Caviezel gave a special message to the audience during the credits like what we just saw was the most heart breaking, tear jerking, emotional wrenching film since The Passion of the Christ.

Nonetheless, I can appreciate the effort and what they were trying to do here, shedding light on a very important and what I imagine to be sensitive subject. But just because the subject matter is strong doesn’t mean the film is.

Link

My take is that they are using whatever apparently irrelevant difficulties they had in getting the film released to stir up drama to replace the missing quality.

EDIT:

I was just out feeding the chickens when I overheard a couple of em in the corner of the coup talking about how barber shops are all under the thumb of Big Hair, so be careful! As I was leaving, one of the geese sidled up to me and whispered that, while she couldn’t go into detail, she knew for a fact that the chickens were all working for The Easter Bunny, the most notorious shit-talker in the whole valley. I ran into a wild hare on my way back here and he just shrugged and said that birds of a feather flock together, whatever cryptic meaning that implies. It sounded ominous though.

Notice how the review I chose doesn’t address your question, but side steps it entirely. That’s most likely what the official explanation for the ‘difficulties’ in releasing the film will do as well. In my opinion, it’s more likely they had difficulties working with people who weren’t brain-dead conspiracy knobs, the kind of people who prefer substance over style, who can see a bad movie for what it is, and not be swayed by the emotions of the subject matter in the face of a poor quality product.

And now that you have read the review I chose and my comment here you are also already micro-brainwashed and can never get it out of your head, not even by doom-scrolling social media.

I learned this, and other nefarious techniques to control the masses from the same group of people your original, implied conspiracy dog whistles about. Think about it.

🤣

https://lemmy.world/post/5340020

I just got reminded of this post when I saw this.