Is Sound of Freedom Still Standing Firm at the Box Office?

Jun 19, 2023

Sound of Freedom vs. Barbie vs. Oppenheimer. Two heavyweights with one underdog at the box office.

The summer box office was in big trouble this year, as highly-anticipated movies like DC's The Flash, Disney's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and Pixar's Elemental were all flopping one after the other, each losing hundreds of millions of dollars. Other films like Fast X, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts hadn't flopped but weren't doing all that great either. It seemed like it was all going to be a forgettable and costly movie season.

That was until July when three big surprise blockbusters smashed through the box offices. First was the indie film with a meager budget by a small unknown studio, Sound of Freedom, the true story of one man fighting child slavers that succeeded with only word of mouth and without any publicity beforehand, beating every other summer movie by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Then came both Barbie and Oppenheimer on the same day, the two incredibly contrasting films becoming a viral internet sensation in what is now known as the "Barbenheimer" phenomenon that has produced over a billion dollars with the two movies combined.

Now that summer is almost over let's look at how these big three summer blockbusters are doing against each other and decide who wins the 2023 summer movie season box office.

Greta Gerwig's hot pink fever dream circling her favorite childhood toy has proven to be one of the most profitable movies of the year, as with a budget of $145 million, Barbie earned $775 million globally at the time of writing. Following the stereotypically perfect Barbie (Margot Robbie) who finds out that her perfect life isn't actually all that perfect, the movie has grossed nearly a billion dollars in just a few weeks from release, so it really shouldn't be surprising that if this trend keeps up the movie could be eyeing that one billion dollar mark very soon.

Even if it doesn't hit a billion, Barbie comes out on top as the undisputed queen of the peak summer box office and is close to beating James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which grossed $837 million, which actually opened the summer movie season.

In order to be the highest-grossing film and ultimate winner of the 2023 movie year, Barbie would have to beat The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which came out much earlier this year and grossed a whopping $1.3 billion. Who knows, Barbie may just be able to dethrone Mario as film king and become the movie queen of 2023 – of course, if no new surprises come later, we are only a bit past halfway through the year. We're excited to see what's next.

Related: Barbie: The Ironic Mission of the Film, Explained

Christopher Nolan's dramatic, drearily dark biopic about the man "who became Death" comes in second for the summer box office, as with a budget of $100 million, Oppenheimer earned $400 million globally at the time of writing. The movie follows the life of real-life theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), "father of the atomic bomb," who manages the Manhattan Project, bringing all the scientists together to create the most powerful and worst weapon ever built by man.

Given how popular Barbie is, Oppenheimer held well as Nolan’s best-ever opening box office performance. Critics and audiences love the movie, too, making it one of his most acclaimed and commercially successful releases to date.

In order to be Nolan's most profitable film, Oppenheimer would have to beat The Dark Knight Rises, which earned $1.08 billion. Oppenheimer has a shot, though, and we're excited to see where this goes.

Related: Oppenheimer: How Christopher Nolan Did the Impossible With His Atomic Blockbuster

Last in this lineup, but most certainly not least in the summer box office season, is Sound of Freedom, the controversial film based on a true story that became a cultural battleground in the middle of its run. The indie movie beat every single expectation from audiences, grossing nearly $150 million domestically at the time of writing – and the small studio is preparing to go global soon, likely to increase their profit even more.

Though, in the battle for summer supremacy, Sound of Freedom comes in last of the big three 2023 summer blockbusters, as Barbie has made over five times that and Oppenheimer over twice that. So Sound of Freedom couldn't keep up its reign for long.

Related: Sound of Freedom: How Accurate is the Indie Film to the True Story?

However, note that Sound of Freedom only had a budget of $14.5 million and has earned over ten times that without a mass marketing campaign. In order for the Barbenheimer team to achieve comparable success, Barbie would have to gross $1.45 billion, and Oppenheimer gross $1.1 billion. While both targets are attainable for the movies, given the popularity and traction, they would be the highest-grossing movie in the careers of both Nolan and Gerwig.

A lover of all nerdy movies, books, shows, comics, and people, RORY PIÑATA studys respiratory therapy in his hometown of Sacramento in California, though he can usually be found reading in the library and writing "nerdicals" in order to fund his nerdy obsessions when he really should be studying.