Afternoon. Please do us a huge favor again this week and forward this to three fellow cinema lovers. The more we can grow our little community, the more content we can bring you.

This past weekend, the box office had some pleasant surprises. First and foremost, Insidious: The Red Door knocked an old and haggard Indiana Jones clean off his block. The new installment in the Insidious franchise did $33 million domestically against a measly $27 million for ol’ Indy. That’s more than a 50% drop for The Dial of Destiny from its previous opening weekend and what will be a $200+ million loss for Disney. Oppenheimer is hitting theaters this month, but I think we all know the title for biggest bombing this year will be retained by Disney.

While Insidious did the biggest numbers, the real talk of the town this week has been Sound of Freedom. The incredible true story of former government agent turned vigilante to rescue hundreds of children from sex trafficking opened July 4th on 2,634 screens and expanded to 2,852 screens once the weekend hit. It’s currently only playing in the U.S., but has managed to accumulate $41 million in ticket sales in just a week of screenings.

With a reported budget of $14.5 million, Sound of Freedom is already likely well in the green, and we suspect based on all of the buzz that it will not see a huge drop in ticket sales in the coming second weekend of its release. In fact, we are predicting it will do bigger numbers than Indiana Jones this weekend, which brings us to the most interesting part of all of this. Sound of Freedom was in fact completed in 2018. However, through Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, Disney shelved the film. For years, the filmmakers tried to buy back the distribution rights. Eventually, Angel Studios was able to secure the distribution rights and was able to crowdfund the release and marketing through 7,000 individuals despite the obstacle set forth by Disney. Now, they’re shoving it in Disney’s face at the box office by outdoing one of the largest, most popular franchises of all time.

Before we wrap up, we just wanted to remind you that Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One hits theaters this weekend. Tom Cruise has been promoting the movie is a lot of really fun ways; discussing whether he will see Barbie or Oppenheimer first, surprising fans at advanced screenings, and so on. He and this franchise are such a big part of the cinema, which is what we champion here, and we hope you’ll get out and see it this weekend and let us know how much you enjoyed it!

Other News & Fun Stuff

• The Drinker Recommends… Sound of Freedom

• First Trailer for ‘WONKA’

• 3 Peanut Approved 90’s Brad Pitt Movies You Can Stream Today

• First Look at Hugh Jackman in ‘Deadpool 3’

• First Trailer for Bob Marley Biopic Released

• ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ Crosses $600 Million Worldwide

• First Look at New ‘Bladerunner’ Video Game

• Alan Arkin Passes Away at Age of 89

• ‘The Incredibles’ Will Return to Theaters September 1

• Evan Peters Cast as Villain in ‘Tron 3’

• Margot Robbie in Discussions to Join ‘Bullet Train 2’

• 9 Minute Standing Ovation for Scorcese’s ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’

• New Poster for ‘Blue Beetle’

• First Poster for ‘Raven The Hunter’

• Bo Katan Actress Wilds Out on Recent Podcast

• Disney + Has Lost 4 Million Subscribers in Q2 2023

• HBO's Harry Potter Series Will Destroy Every Streaming Record Imaginable

Box Office Update

Meme of the Week

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER!