According to recent reports, the summer box office has tanked amid a slew of woke movies that have dragged down overall performance. However, several non-woke titles have enjoyed notably strong earnings, as audiences could be craving entertainment that spares them from a politically charged message about some contemporary social cause.
This year’s summer box office is down 11 percent compared to last year, which was also a lackluster season for movie titles. Reportedly, between May and Labor Day, the domestic box office only grossed $3.6 billion. These figures pale in comparison to pre-pandemic figures such as 2019’s $4.32 billion, and 208’s $4.41 billion, showing that in-person cinema has never recovered. Year-to-date, the 2024 box office is down 14 percent year-over-year.
The summer has been plagued with woke movies such as Furiosa: A Mad Max Story, which turned out to be a major flop. However, there have been numerous examples of other films that appeal to broad audiences and are apolitical. The titles include Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Inside Out 2, A Quiet Place: Day One, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Twisters.
With a weather-related film such as Twisters in today’s political climate, one might expect a leftist director to have taken on the movie and turned it into commentary on climate change. However, the film’s director explicitly noted that the movie was apolitical and did not involve any underlying political message. As a result, it proved to be one of the biggest hits of the summer.
There is increasing evidence that audiences are growing tired of woke entertainment, particularly when it involves ruining a longstanding, reputable franchise with a new film or show that tries to fit in with the spirit of the age. For example, the latest show in the Star Wars franchise, “The Acolyte,” received abysmal ratings from the audience and was scrapped after just one season.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, “The Acolyte” received and audience rating of 18%, making it one of the lowest-rated pieces of entertainment in Star Wars history, a far cry from the legendary works of George Lucas over the past few decades. Fans are so disgruntled with the show that The American Tribune recently reported on a fan-led initiative to “de-canonize” “The Acolyte.”
The petition reads, “Like so many fans of Star Wars, I found the show the acolyte absolutely frustrating. For some it might’ve been the abysmal writing, the ever-changing character motivations, or the awkward cinematography and strange jump cuts. The show was completely misdirected. For others could be the multiple ways the show breaks canon, jangles keys of established characters damaging them in the future or the way the show makes the prophecy of the chosen one completely insignificant. Help me show Disney that we want to reset the prequel era back to George’s original vision that I know so many of us love.”
“As a long time SW fan, I care about the stories and the characters created by George Lucas. I hate seeing their stories being trashed and ret-conned by creators that hate the very existence of George Lucas’s original story and his characters. They can’t create so they want to destroy,” one Star Wars fan wrote about the show.
Watch Megyn Kelly blast Disney for being woke below:
Watch a trailer for “Deadpool & Wolverine” below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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