The most controversial movie of 2023 is streaming now

  ❘   Published: 2023-12-27T10:44:22  ❘   Updated: 2023-12-27T10:44:33

The culture of cinema has shifted in 2023, and the year’s most controversial movie has just dropped on streaming. “God’s children are not for sale.”

Cast your mind back to 2019: eight of the top 10 movies on the year’s overall domestic box office had Disney’s fingerprints on them. It was Bob Iger’s wet dream, that’s the thing about dreams – sooner or later, you need to wake up.

This year has marked one of the most eye-opening downward trends when it comes to presumed successes on the big screen: Ant-Man 3, billed as the introduction of the next big bad (yikes), became one of the MCU’s biggest flops, only to look comparably successful after The Marvels’ woeful performance; Indiana Jones 5, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1, and Fast X all underperformed; and, on a more positive note, Barbie, Oppenheimer, and The Super Mario Bros Movie amassed huge returns.

However, there’s one anomaly on the 2023 chart in the US, a movie that became engulfed by its surrounding backlash(es) and discourse.

Sound of Freedom, starring Jim Caviezel as controversial anti-sex trafficking operative Jim Ballard, is streaming on Prime Video now.

The movie, directed by Alejandro Monteverde, follows Caviezel’s Ballard as he travels to Colombia to rescue children from sex traffickers. It’s said to be based on a true story – but the jury’s still out on the authenticity of the film’s events. You can read our deep dive into its backstory here.

Most recently, the real-life Ballard became the subject of a lawsuit accusing him of sexual manipulation, harassment, and assault during overseas trips to track and catch traffickers. Amid the allegations, he resigned from Operation Underground Railroad, the organization which he founded in 2013… which has also been criticized for its conduct and accused of exaggerating its accomplishments abroad.

Yet, despite being a humbly budgeted indie thriller without a major distributor, it became a bona fide box office phenomenon. In the US alone, it grossed more than $184 million, just ahead of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Movie. This has to be credited to its pay-it-forward scheme, with Caviezel encouraging fans to purchase tickets for those who may not have been able to afford them.

This had a flip side, with many viewers claiming to have seen empty auditoriums, while fans alleged theater chains of conspiring against the film’s success – the latter is categorically untrue.

Sound of Freedom can be streamed on Prime Video, which you can sign up for here. You can also check out our other coverage below:

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