It’s Wednesday night and I’ve been watching some YouTube videos by right-wing Hollywood types; Nick Searcy, Andrew Klavan, Steve Deace. These guys have made the transition from Hollywood actors and writers to conservatives who want to create content that doesn’t outrage their convictions.
And listening to them talk about the blacklisting and the gatekeeping you can’t help but feel discouraged. And look at Disney where they’ve lost more than a billion dollars in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars series in the last year or two. Even the remakes of the legacy Disney fairy tales are scaring away the parents. Would these losses make them reconsider what they’re doing? Nope. Doubling down doesn’t even begin to describe their behavior. It’s pretty depressing.
But I think I detect a hint of desperation. It seems the strategy is to monopolize the entertainment choices utterly. It’s almost as if they’re afraid people will find out that movies that are entertaining can actually exist. And it makes sense. Even they must know that their stuff is for the most part unwatchable. So, all they can do is blockade anyone else trying to get funding and book theaters. And so far, that’s worked. But slowly, slowly, even glacially some stuff is leaking by. So far, it’s all been Christian movies. But the definition of what’s a Christian movie is being stretched. Last year a “Christian horror movie;” Nefarious made $12 million from box office and streaming off of a $1 million total cost. That’s a very nice return on investment. Compare that to Disney spending $3 billion and getting back $2 billion. Negative return on investment, not so great.
Then there was Netflix putting out the comedy specials by Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais. Netflix’s own employees attempted to block the showing of these specials. They saw these comedy routines as transphobic and hateful. But Netflix decided that they need money more than they needed virtue signaling to their employees. Another good sign.
Now conservative social media outlets are trying their hand at making movies. The Daily Wire has made a couple of forays into comedy. I don’t think they’ve succeeded yet but I give them full marks for trying. Eventually somebody is going to make a stab at it and hit pay dirt. And when that happens there will be a lot more. Netflix is already one foot in the door. All they’ll need is for a non-woke film maker to figure out the formula and they’ll be setting up shop and pumping stuff out. There hasn’t been a decent comedy in a decade and if one studio starts putting them out, they’ll end up printing money.
So, I think we will get some alternatives to Hollywood. And we’ll get it by supporting it ourselves. What was that stupid Obama mantra? “You are the change you’ve been waiting for?” It’s horrible to realize but it’s actually true for our side. We will have to stand up all these new platforms ourselves. We’ll have to buy the tickets and take out subscriptions and buy books and go to plays just to make sure there actually is a non-woke alternative to all this awful crap they keep pumping out.
But finally, one fine day, Disney and Time Warner and NBC-Universal and whatever other woke behemoths there are will wither away all together and we’ll look out over a landscape where girl-boss jedi and Captain Marvel have been relegated to senior living facilities with a maximum of three cats and one bottle of wine a night. And nobody declares their pronouns and spiderman is a man.
And on that day, I’ll bring my first great-grandson to the movies without wincing.
Yeah, remaking old John Wayne flicks with a harelip black lesbian dwarf as the lead doesn’t seem to be packing them in.
And yet harelip black lesbian dwarfs continue to be presented regardless of empty theaters. They’re persistent buggers.
I for one welcome our harelipped black lesbian dwarven overlords.
You may welcome them but I doubt you want to pay forty bucks to bring your date to see their movie. That’s their problem. No one wants to plunk down the brass to see this crap.
lol, you’re right about that. The last good movie I saw in the theaters was Furiosa. I don’t mind a story about a “strong female character” if the character is compelling and well-written. These days, they’re just taking popular characters, gender- and race-swapping them, and making them lame (metaphorically, but perhaps also literally).
Imagine a John Wayne character as portrayed by Stacey Abrams. The only part she should be playing is a morbidly obese Aunt Jemima.
Poor Aunt Jemima. She and Uncle Ben were cancelled after George Floyd. But that wasn’t the real Aunt Jemima. Back around the turn of the century they put her on a diet and gave her a new haircut. The old Aunt Jemima had a doo rag and probably weighed about 275. You could tell she liked pancakes.
It would be great if they dubbed Wayne’s voice onto Stacey!
“Whoa, take er easy there pilgrim.” or, “Well son, since you haven’t learned to respect your elders, it’s time you learned to respect your betters”
A very good movie that somehow made it to the theaters is “Sound of freedom” – a bit heavy for kids though. My local theater (which is often begging for viewers) was sold out almost every show. The same theater now has: “A quiet place: Day one” which is a remake of a terrible horror movie only this time with a POC in the lead. (Pass.) “The Garfield movie” (Might be OK for kids, but I’ll pass). “Inside out 2” (A sequel to a movie I did not see. Looks like Disney/Pixar – best to avoid.) “Bad Boys Ride or… Read more »
Sound of Freedom is an excellent piece of evidence. It made an enormous return on investment despite disrespecting the narrative. More good evidence that maybe providing people with what they want is good business practice.
Excellent example. And it was apparently buried for years before enjoying a massive release.