'Sound of Freedom' Studio's New Movie Is Already a Box Office Hit

The feature film follow-up to Sound of Freedom is set to make its budget back thanks to merchandise sales.

The Shift is Brock Hasley's directorial debut and meds his love for sci-fi with a love story based on the Bible's book of Job. It opened on December 1 and was the seventh highest-grossing film in the U.S over the weekend, making $1.165 million according to Box Office Mojo.

Hasley told Newsweek in November that the movie cost $7 million to make and is about to make the money back just days after its release.

Angel Studios helped to fund The Shift and were behind the distribution of the 2023 surprise success of Sound of Freedom. That film about child trafficking is the 10th highest-grossing film in the U.S. and opened in the number spot in multiple countries around the world.

But thanks to the keen interest in The Shift, fans have snapped up unique merchandise from the Angel Studios online store, including jewelry based on a necklace the lead character, Kevin (Kristoffer Polaha), gives his wife in the movie.

Known as the "Empty Tomb" necklace, it represented how the couple would one day be reunited with their dead son in heaven. Angel Studios is selling various iterations of it from bracelets to earrings and necklace sets.

The studios claimed to have already sold about $2 million worth of the necklaces, according to Angel Studios. Newsweek has requested confirmation of the sales figures by email. The "Empty Tomb" jewelry pieces range in price from $49.99 to $119.99.

The Shift also managed to bring in the big bucks thanks to pre-sale ticket sales and the studio's "pay it forward" system which encourages people to buy tickets for others as a means to promote the film, especially those who couldn't afford to buy the tickets themselves.

Thanks to the merchandise boon, Angel Studios will now have more money to spend on getting more people to watch The Shift theaters well into 2024.

"Our strategy has been to release the film slowly, building an audience throughout the holiday season and into early 2024," said Brandon Purdie, Angel Studios' head of theatrical.

"But with the remarkable response in box office pre-sales and general merchandise sales, including over $2,000,000 in empty tomb necklaces alone, we are committed to increase our P&A (prints and advertising) theatrical marketing spend well into the Christmas season."

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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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