For years people have said in my presence that despite the leftist leanings of Hollywood, the people running it were there to make money. But despite that I watched as Hollywood produced bomb after bomb that preached the leftist creed above all other ingredients in the film. They sacrificed entertainment, artistry and certainly profitability on the altar of woke propaganda. Probably the most egregious of these studios was Disney that sacrificed the virtually unlimited money-making machines of such franchises as Star Wars, Marvel Comics and even the classic Disney princess movies to bang away at woke agenda elements like LGBTQ identity, anti-white racism and feminist dogma.
Well, maybe, just maybe, the tide has turned. I think this week we received two data points that signal a definite reversal. The first is the news today that Sky Dance has cancelled the third season of “Star Trek – Starfleet Academy.” This was a two-season installment that has been estimated to have cost somewhere between two hundred and four hundred million dollars. Now that is an enormous amount of money but what makes it astonishing is that when this show ran it wasn’t one of the top ten shows on Paramount Plus. It was regularly beaten out by reruns of “Everyone Loves Raymond” and “Sponge Bob Square Pants.” In fact, it was even worse than this. In order to build up buzz for the first episode, it was put on YouTube for free and less than a thousand people watched it the first day. Think about that.
Paramount was bought by Skydance last year so they didn’t order this show. And the production company (Alex Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout) is finishing its contract with Paramount in April and it’s looking like they won’t be doing anymore Star Trek for Skydance. And Skydance is probably going to purchase Warner Brothers this year and that may have a very great impact on how the DC Universe movies look going forward. So, there is an example of changing sensibilities going forward in Hollywood. Enormous costs for productions that no one wants to watch are ending. So that’s the negative case, what won’t be happening anymore.
As for what is happening on the positive side let’s look at what Amazon/MGM have released this week. Andy Weir (the author of the book turned movie “The Martian”) wrote the book “Project Hail Mary” in 2021. It cost two hundred million to make. It made $141 million on its first weekend. This is one of the biggest openings in the last four years. And it is predicted to be a big hit. It’s a movie whose only human character is a white male. The only diversity casting is an alien creature that looks like a pile of small rocks. There’s no woke elements at all. Just an adventure story about a man light years from Earth cooperating with an unearthly creature to save both of their planets. From all of the reviews I’ve read it’s a solid movie that the whole family can and probably will enjoy and it doesn’t say anything about the LGBTQ or how white people stole America from the Indians or enslaved black people. And the fact that the astronaut is not a girl boss but a young white man I take to be aspirational for every white American boy who has been told for the last couple of decades that they shouldn’t get a turn at being the good guy. So that’s the positive side. Hollywood can make good movies and people will come to the theaters to see them. And they can make money doing it.
Maybe the tide has turned.