Sound Of Freedom: TikTok Users Complain Of A/C And Other Theater Issues

A handful of moviegoers who saw "Sound of Freedom" were inconvenienced by theater issues such as broken air conditioning and house lighting, and they've taken to TikTok to air their complaints. The movie, which has seen a surge at the box office thanks largely to a word-of-mouth effect, is an action-thriller about a man who rescues children from trafficking rings. Starring Jim Caviezel, best known for his role as Jesus Christ in Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ," the film initially struggled to find a distributor. That embattlement has become a part of the marketing around the film, and those among its target audience who had a bad moviegoing experience have construed it as part of the same narrative.

"The stories are true," wrote @Stephysteph69 in a caption accompanying a video of a theater manager offering free movie vouchers to an audience whose showing of the film had been affected by technical issues. The user also added the hashtag "#conspiracytiktok." Another TikTok user, @Jamskillet, said, "There was no A/C running. It was unbearably hot." He continued by claiming that the showing had appeared as nearly sold out online, but that few people actually came to the theater. "They silence anybody who talks about this stuff," he said following the account of his experience, shortly thereafter stating, "The [Jeffrey] Epstein thing. That's what all this is about." At the time of writing, many such videos have millions of views on TikTok.

While there's no reason to doubt that many moviegoers who saw "Sound of Freedom" experienced less than ideal viewing conditions, their claims that hot, brightly lit theaters are being weaponized against the film as a form of sabotage is, at best, speculation. The nebulous "they" invoked as the perpetrators of such incidents remain unnamed across the TikTok videos. "They don't want you to see this movie," user @Savannahlathem claimed in her video. Who, precisely, doesn't want you to see it remains unexplained. Other TikTok users blame AMC directly, suggesting that the national theater chain, which nearly went out of business in 2020 as noted by CBS, is actively trying to turn away paying customers. "Are movie theaters sabotaging this?" asked @thebryanmiller. "As a person who used to be a manager in a movie theater, I can say, it seems like it."

It is worth noting that "Sound of Freedom" landed in theaters amid a historic heat wave that has driven temperatures across the planet to the highest ever recorded for multiple days in a row. The United States now finds itself in the middle of an intense heat dome that has enveloped the vast swaths of the country. Certain locales, especially the Southwest, are being hit harder than others by the heat, and air conditioning systems not built to withstand such temperatures are prone to failure. Those facts may help to explain recent theater annoyances.

It is also notable that AMC has given "Sound of Freedom" a wide theatrical release. On July 12, AMC CEO Adam Aron tweeted in part, "More than ONE MILLION people have watched Sound of Freedom at AMC Theaters. More than at any other theatre chain on the planet."