Last year, Dennis Quaid added another huge success to his stacked filmography, playing the role of the slimy producer Harvey in Coralie Fargeat’s Oscar-winning The Substance. Although Quaid would play a supporting role under two powerhouse performances from Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, his character is still vital to the movie’s refreshingly bold message, helping it sneak into an impressive Best Picture line-up at the Oscars, on a night it took home the trophy for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
Adored by critics and almost all of its audience, The Substance boasts not just a golden statue but an impressive, “certified fresh” 89% critics’ score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, alongside an audience rating of 75%. However, just one year later, Quaid is involved in a brand-new action flick that has outperformed The Substance in both categories: Sovereign. Debuting in theaters back on July 11, the same day as James Gunn’s Superman, Sovereign has risen from an 82% score just ten days ago to a huge 93% at the time of writing, supported by an 83% audience score.
So far, the film has only been made available in just 54 screens across the U.S., leading to an opening weekend box office stint that, at first glance, seems disappointing. Across its first three days in theaters, Sovereign took home just $24,652, making for a per-theater average of $457. This is only a couple of hundred dollars less than the per-theater average of both From the World of John Wick: Ballerina ($666) and M3GAN 2.0 ($859), which is an achievement that is worth celebrating for a movie with a much lower marketing budget.
What Is ‘Sovereign’ About?
What many will not know is that Sovereign is a movie inspired by true events. Starring The Last of Us alum Nick Offerman alongside The Little Mermaid‘s Jacob Tremblay, Last Man Standing star Nancy Travis, and, of course, Quaid, the film follows a father and his son, “who follow the Sovereign Citizen belief system, a deeply anti-establishment worldview rooted in distrust of government authority.” The synopsis continues:
“As the pair travel across the country delivering self-taught legal seminars and pushing back against systems they believe have failed them, their journey brings them into conflict with Police Chief Jim Bouchart (Quaid), setting off a tragic chain of events that forces a reckoning with power, principle, and the limits of freedom.”
Sovereign is in theaters now. Stay tuned to Collider for more on the latest movies.
Release Date
July 11, 2025
Runtime
100 Minutes
Director
Christian Swegal
Writers
Christian Swegal
Producers
Nick Moceri