AMC CEO Responds To Reports That AMC Theaters Are Suppressing ‘Sound Of Freedom’

John F. Trent |

Jul 12, 2023

AMC Theaters CEO Adam Aron recently responded to a number of reports that the theater chain was suppressing the recently released Sound of Freedom film from distributor Angel Studios.

A number of viral videos speculated that AMC Theaters were suppressing the film by shutting off the air conditioning or creating random emergencies that resulted in moviegoers having their tickets refunded.

TikTok user isntsheadaisy shared a video where a woman says, “So I’ve been seeing all over TikTok that people are going to watch the movie the Sound of Freedom and these weird things are happening like random emergency evacuations, the air conditioning not working and having to leave the theater.”

“And I thought, ‘No, that’s probably just something that’s happening in other theaters in other places.’ So I took me and my daughters to go watch the Sound of Freedom today and about an hour and 20 minutes into the movie we get a random emergency evacuation. None of the staff knows what’s going on. The mall wasn’t being evacuated; just the theater. All they did was refund us our money with no explanation.”

She concluded, “But I guess you can call me a conspiracy theorist.”

@isntsheadaisy Whats going on??? Anyone else experiencing this??? #soundoffreedommovie #emergencyevacuation #whatsgoingon #godschildrenarenotforsale #timballard @SOUND OF FREEDOM OFFICIAL @SOFFilm ♬ original sound – Darcy

Another TikTok video from user bleighve1112 shows the user saying, “So don’t know if any one of you have already been to see the Sound of Freedom, but my friends and I just walked out and we are curious what your experiences were in the movie theater because we pre-ordered our tickets, paid for them, they were claimed, got the link sent, and this was an AMC theater in Pineville, North Carolina.”

She continued, “Some point today the tickets got refunded to my friend and we couldn’t figure out why. So we come, anyways, to the theater after dinner and they’re like, ‘Oh, well, we refunded all the tickets because there’s no air conditioning in our theaters.’ Okay, whatever, we don’t care. ‘Are you still showing it?’ ‘Yeah, you can still watch it.’

“So we get to thinking, ‘Why did they not send out a notice in the email saying, ‘Hey, we refunded your tickets because there’s no air conditioning.’ And we just are curious why they didn’t let us know. There was no one in that theater. It was us four and four other people. Eight people in the theater on a Friday night. There was air conditioning in the lobby. There was air conditioning in the hallways. There was air conditioning in the bathrooms. Not the theaters? They don’t have the bartender or any thing in the theater? I smell something stinky and I think it’s s**t.”

@bleighve1112 ♬ original sound – Bleighve1112

In a follow-up she questioned, “How many people do you know would actually still go to a theater knowing that your tickets have been refunded to check on your tickets. Not that many people. We did because we are not dumb — and also that was divinely inspired for God to push us to keep going here — to find out what these theaters are doing to keep this message from getting out.

I don’t care what you think about anything Hollywood. A message is a message and who cares who the messenger is. Go see the f***ing movie and be damned what your theater tells you if it refunds your tickets. Go anyways,” she concluded.

@bleighve1112 ♬ original sound – Bleighve1112

In response to these videos and likely others like them, AMC Theaters CEO Adam Aron shared to Twitter, “Really bizarre [Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt] floating around Twitter that we are suppressing attendance for Sound of Freedom. Yesterday we showed that movie 3,000 times at our 570 U.S. theatres and more than 100,000 people watched it at AMC Theaters.”

He added, “Misinformation on Twitter is astonishing. Bots? Haters?”

A day later he issued another tweet writing, “Let’s put this ridiculous conspiracy theory to bed. Fri/Sat more than 250,000 people watched Sound of Freedom at AMC in the U.S.”

He then quoted Angel Studios Head of Distribution writing, “Angel Studios Head of Distribution: ‘No other theater chain in the world has shown more support for Sound of Freedom and Angel Studios than AMC.'”

Angel Studios Co-founder Jeffrey Harmon responded to Aron’s original tweet writing, “Adam, I’m a cofounder at Angel Studios and I want to personally thank you for how amazing of a partner you have been. Many of your managers have reached out to me and personally told me they love what is happening and have worked so hard to bring a great experience to sound of freedom fans.”

Angel Studios CEO Neal Harmon also responded to Aron’s first tweet writing, “We are so grateful that you stepped up to support this film. Thank you for your partnership.”

YouTuber Coach’s Archive responded to Aron’s comments saying, “The only thing that he has tweeted out about Sound of Freedom is the response to the suppressing and the apparent sabotage. All of the stories that so many of you have shared. That’s the only thing that he has done. And he actually questions whether we are bots and haters. You have got to be kidding me.”

“If you’ve got time to praise Mission: Impossible, if you’ve got time to praise Barbie, if you’ve got time to praise Indiana Jones, but the number one in the theater on two different days in the last seven days and you can’t say a word about it, that’s about all I need to know about you, Mr. Aron, CEO of AMC,” he concluded.