‘Trying to stop the movie’: AMC customer says theater discouraged her from seeing ‘Sound of Freedom’ by saying AC was out
A woman and her friends were left baffled after a series of mishaps related to a screening of the new film Sound of Freedom starring Jim Caviezel occurred at an AMC in Pineville, North Carolina.
TikTok user @belighve1112 uploaded a post that's accrued over 6 million likes on the platform. In it, she and several commenters speculated that there might be a concentrated effort to try and stop folks from seeing the film.
She explains in a selfie-style video, with an on-screen caption reading, “AMC pulling some sketchy crap with #thesoundoffreedom,” that their pre-paid tickets were refunded to them without explanation on the same day of the screening.
After dinner that evening, they stopped by the theater to inquire about the matter only to learn from AMC staff that they had been refunded because there was no air conditioning in that particular theater where the film was playing.
This led the creator to ask, "Why did they not send out a notice in the email saying, 'Hey, we refunded your tickets because there is no air conditioning?’"
She found this to be odd and also noted, “There was air conditioning in the lobby, there was air conditioning in the hallway, there was air conditioning in the bathrooms, not the theaters?”
@bleighve1112 ♬ original sound - Bleighve1112
The creator concludes her video by looking into the camera and saying, “I smell something stinky, and I think it’s sh*t!”
She also made a Part 2 video that drew more than 337,000 views.
@bleighve1112 ♬ original sound - Bleighve1112
Users throughout the United States came into the comments section to make similar claims.
One user wrote, “The AMC in Tx was also with no AC,” while another commented, “I’m in California and this happened to us yesterday.” Other users in Illinois, Nevada, and elsewhere also complained of the same exact issue.
The general message of the users’ comments seemed to insinuate that theaters are indirectly discouraging people from seeing the movie due to its controversial subject matter.
Sound of Freedom is, according to the Washington Post, based on a true story of a former government agent turned vigilante who embarks on a dangerous mission to rescue hundreds of children from sex traffickers. The film stars Caviezel as special agent Tim Ballard and is written & directed by Alejandro Monteverde.
Caviezel, who is most famous for playing Jesus Christ in The Passion of the Christ, is a very active voice in the Christian community and has been accused of espousing far-right political ideologies and echoing talking points affiliated with the group Qanon. The American conspiracy theory and political movement originated in the American far-right political sphere in 2017, and the group has been criticized as espousing far-fetched, baseless conspiracy theories.
Belighve1112's bio reads “AMERICAN. PATRIOT. CONSTITUTIONALIST," and she appeared to attract like-minded people in her comments section. One such person theorized, “They don’t want people to see the movie … they have had to jump through hoops to get it out to the public” while another questioned, “Maybe if they can claim the theater is consistently empty, they have reason to pull it?”
Someone else replied: "Trying to stop the movie/truth!!!!"
Another posited the idea that AMC was intentionally trying to stop people from watching the film: "My AMC said it was almost sold out when I got my tickets online, we got there and it was just me, my mom and 3 more people"
The DailyDot has reached out to @belighve1112 via TikTok comment and AMC via email.
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