Sound of Hope is the latest in “conservative” films being distributed and marketed primarily to conservative audiences. Being distributed by Angel Studios, it joins the Sound of Freedom and Cabrini for their recent box office releases. Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot is their current release, remaining ninth at the box office garnering around $10 million off a $8.9 million budget. The movie is about a couple in rural Texas who adopt 77 children with explicitly Christian themes.
The movie was made by Peacetree Productions and directed by Joshua and Rebekah Weigel. Angel Studios bought the distribution rights and then they signed a deal with Daily Wire to help distribute the movie, which might later be featured on Daily Wire+ in what Jeremy Boreing described as a collaboration that many have been asking for.
What is likely the case is that Angel Studios went to Daily Wire to help cultivate an audience interested in the film—in other words, to market and advertise the film. Many conservative commentators within Conservative Inc. have been doing live-reads for the movie, which is a very unusual way to advertise a movie. Instead of showing a trailer, the commentator is the one encouraging people to see the movie. This same approach was also used with Angel’s Cabrini and The Chosen.
Letitia Wright is listed as an Executive Producer for the film, but Wright is best known for her lead role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever where she played the Mary-Sue female Black Panther following the untimely death of Chadwick Boseman. Ironically, in 2020 Letitia Wright caught flack from the media for posting a video skeptical of the Covid Vaccine.
Following the deal with Angel Studios, Wright denounced Daily Wire:
The Instagram post was since deleted, but the internet took notice. Wright blames Angel for politicizing the movie by advertising with Daily Wire. Merely associating with Daily Wire is divisive and political. Joshua Weigel responded via this statement, apologizing to Wright:
As the director, writers and lead producers, we created this film in the hope it would ignite a movement to end the foster crisis. Letitia Wright has championed this project with us, even choosing not to accept compensation for the sake of the cause. We are grateful for all she has done, and regret she wasn’t informed about the partnership with The Daily Wire. That was not handled well, and we apologize for putting her in this position.
Essentially, he is apologizing for Angel using Conservative Inc to market a movie about adoption and foster care that emotes pro-life themes to the audience that would be most receptive to such a movie—that is conservative Americans. And who did she think the movie would be marketed to knowing that Angel Studios was the distributor? Did she think the Breakfast Club would promote the movie? Of course, they would never promote bearing children as opposed to aborting them.
Analysis
Ultimately Joshua Weigel was not apologizing for mishandling a distribution deal; he was apologizing for his target audience. Movies that attack their audiences deserve to do poorly.
Daily Wire and Conservative Inc. have been trying desperately to break into movies, mostly because they failed in Hollywood so they pivoted to politics. Their failed attempts include Mr. Birchum, Lady Ballers, and largely unseen movies like Run Hide Fight (which they distributed) and Terror on the Prairie starring Gina Carano. Their content resume comes across as an attempt to own the libs and is just as bad as the art they are trying to counter. Rather than release their films on a real streaming service like Netflix, they keep their content behind their paywall where minds will never be changed.
Other Con Inc outlets like The Blaze have tried to break into movies with mixed success, like Steve Deace’s film Nefarious. Meanwhile, Angel Studios is a redheaded stepchild in Hollywood that is hardly viewed as legitimate while serving a niche audience of church ladies and Mormons. They need these partnerships with Daily Wire to sell their movies because they lack the reputation necessary to succeed at the box office. Furthermore, their audience is not large enough to justify all their projects, as movies like Cabrini bombed on its $50 million budget.
Creating culture requires tact and it needs to be done apart from Conservative Inc outlets, or the normies, while not as vitriolic as Wright, will write off any project that is associated with Con Inc sight unseen. Thus far, Conservative Inc. has not given them any reasons to think otherwise or reconsider.
