According to recent reports, major Hollywood films are significantly underperforming at the box office compared to previous years. While the media has come up with a number of excuses for the downward trend, it’s clear that many Americans are fed up with the woke messaging found throughout the latest entertainment offerings.
Box Office Mojo reported the year-to-date domestic box office gross earnings as just over $2 billion as of May 3. This represents an over 22 percent decline compared to 2023’s reported gross earnings of over $2.6 billion during the same time frame. Notably, this is a 41 percent decline from pre-pandemic figures from 2019.
A recent opinion piece from Sally Reed on Publination highlights how many consumers have been turned off from Hollywood films over the “woke agenda” inserted into the latest releases. As a result, the box office is “hemorrhaging” money.
“It seems that with every new release that includes part of the “woke” agenda, Hollywood is hemorrhaging money. The 2023 numbers fell an entire half a billion dollars short of the projected total, yet Hollywood seems to think everyone isn’t fed up with woke media yet. Let’s see why that might be a problem,” she wrote.
Reed pointed out the seeming selection bias in the audience that Hollywood is trying to appeal to. As a result, its content is not relatable to a large percentage of the audience, where, in some cases, it can even be “condemning” to those who don’t align with it.
“Hollywood has been trying to reach out to regular people and create films they think people want to see. Unfortunately, the people they ask all live in the same state. The result is that the media is poorly received and focuses on values and aesthetics that don’t appeal to the core audience. Hollywood seems to be trying to sell a message and condemning anyone who doesn’t believe the same as it does,” she added.
Many have tried to blame the losses on other factors, such as the pandemic-exacerbated demand for streaming services or the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike that delayed the production of much content. However, conservatives maintain that the role of the woke agenda in Hollywood’s financial woes cannot be understated.
According to Breitbart News’ John Nolte: “But this year is shaping up to be a full-blown catastrophe, and despite what the sycophants in the entertainment media tell you, it has nothing to do with the strike or the pandemic or weather or marketing or anything other than what the science tells us: people are falling out of love with the movies. People are rejecting the movies. After some seven years of woke garbage, gay sex, grooming, DEI, and the politicization of absolutely everything, by a margin of 2-to-1, Normal People say the movies are worse today than in past decades.”
As Reed noted, if the entertainment industry wants to rebound, it will have to reconsider its content. “While many studios are optimistic about a change, managers and directors will need to work hard to move away from what they’ve been making to date. Woke media isn’t anyone’s favorite,” she stated.
