The newly-released film Sound of Freedom has been surprisingly successful at the box office. The movie was notoriously shelved for years. And, now that the behind-the-scenes story has made the rounds online, new reports are being made. According to some moviegoers, their theaters are sabotaging showings of Sound of Freedom.
The NY Post has collected some of these claims, which include “forgetting to dim the lights, or in at least one case, turning off the air conditioning in the theater.” The reports were made on social media by patrons of AMC Theatres and Regal Cinemas.
One notable claim comes from rapper Jamskillet on TikTok. As shared in their video, “there was no AC running,” and the theater “was unbearably hot.” His request to have the AC turned back on was met with the following response from an employee: the AC wasn’t working.
Furthermore, while the theater was almost completely booked at the time of purchasing tickets, he and his partner were some of the only ones in the actual showing. As he puts it, “maybe eight other people in the whole theater.” He further added that this comes after so many other similar stories went viral:
“I didn’t think anything of this until I got on TikTok a few days later, and come to find out that hundreds of other people are experiencing the same thing,” he added. “So AMC and Regal, the people who own it, are not running AC and they’re making it hard to get tickets.”
This was followed by another user which shared a video of an employee at their theater. The employee offered “free passes to come back and see [the movie] again, hopefully without interruption,” as the audience sits in a theater with lights that aren’t dimming. The employee also apologizes “for the inconvenience,” and notes that they’re “getting it hopefully looked at later in the week.”
“This is called intentional,” says one man near the camera. “They don’t want it to go to the box office gross. Don’t take the money.”
@leannestone2 The light dimmer “was broken” and this “has never happened before” and its just a coincidence what movie this happened during #soundoffreedom ♬ original sound – Leanne Stone
Of course, AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron has rejected these claims – and had the backing of Angel Studios as well:
Top studio exec: “We have come across the absurd internet posts regarding AMC’s alleged suppression of Sound of Freedom. Angel Studios fully stands with you and AMC in complete solidarity. No other theater chain in the world has shown more support for Sound of Freedom than AMC.”
— Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) July 19, 2023
Aron also insists that more than one million people have seen Sound of Freedom in their chain of theaters so far.
Sadly, conspiracy theorists are so prevalent in America. So much garbage information is spread. More than ONE MILLION people have watched Sound of Freedom at AMC Theatres. More than at any other theatre chain on the planet. Yet people falsely claim otherwise. It is so bizarre.
— Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) July 12, 2023
Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates regarding Sound of Freedom as we have them.