But the film’s real godsend is the ability for “Sound of Freedom” fans to buy movie tickets for complete strangers.

Angel Studios calls it “Pay It Forward,” in which you can buy a ticket for “Sound of Freedom,” pay for another one, and someone else can apply to redeem it if they don’t have the financial means. A larger group of people buying tickets in bulk, such as for a company or a church, can even redeem a portion of their tickets for free. The distributor says of its $14.2 million haul, $2.6 million came from people overpaying through those Pay It Forward ticket sales.

The numbers make the industry take notice. “Sound of Freedom” is Angel Studios’ second theatrical release. Its first, biblical film “His Only Son,” which opened over the 2023 Easter holiday, was the first to utilize the Pay It Forward platform. It made over $12 million on a budget of just $250,000. Angel Studios declined to say how much “His Only Son” brought in via Pay It Forward, but an April Washington Examiner report said the program represented an additional 20,000 tickets. Prior to that, Angel TV series “The Chosen,” an event release through Fathom Events, brought in $5.5 million for the first two episodes of the show’s third season.

. “Sound of Freedom” is Angel’s widest release to date on more than 2,600 screens. While the movie has some faith-based overtones, it’s not overtly religious. It even has a PG-13 rating due to its heavy subject matter, which leads analysts to believe the film is finding appeal beyond the core faith-based crowd.

“This is yet another example of a faith-based distributor breaking the rules and coming out a winner,” Comscore senior analyst Paul Dergarabedian told IndieWire. “[It] also shows that a grassroots marketing strategy and tapping into the power of the faith-based audience has proven to be a very effective method to generate profits.”