Did Angel Studios just give Peabody, Mass.-based
Christianbook, LLC an exclusive on the home entertainment launch of Sound of
Freedom?
It would not come as a surprise!!
Nothing has been “normal” in the distribution
pattern for director Alejandro Monteverde’s box office smash, Sound of
Freedom, starring Jim Caviezel.
The film, based on the war-on-sex-trafficking work
of Tim Ballard, was completed in 2018 and ended up at 20th Century-Fox, but the
moment Disney acquired Fox the film was shelved.
Producer Eduardo Verástegui, director Alejandro
Monteverde, Caviezel and others re-acquired the film and teamed up with Angel
Studios to release it. Angel Studios, in
turn, used the somewhat unorthodox way of crowdfunding to launch the film
theatrically and in the process generated a huge following through social
media.
To date, the film has pulled in over $180 million in
domestic box office receipts, making it one of the biggest hits of the year …
and certainly the most profitable.
On Sept. 1, Christianbook.com dropped its “Top New
Releases” announcement on social media and those following the link suddenly
came across the news that pre-orders are now being taking for both DVD and
Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack editions of Sound of Freedom with
a Friday, Nov. 03 delivery date.
A quick check of other sites, including amazon.com,
deepdiscount.com, etc. showed no activity on the film. In an odd way, it makes sense that Angel
Studios would pick Christianbook to be the sole source for distribution of home
entertainment packaged media products … it will be interesting to see how this all
plays out.
The ARR* works out to 126 days. There are no details as to bonus materials
included with the physical media copies at this time.
* ARR is Asset Rollover Rate, which describes the number of dates between
a film’s theatrical debut and its subsequent release on DVD, Blu-ray and/or 4K
Ultra HD.