Another Woke Fail

Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

It never ceases to amaze how people in Hollywood can’t get it through their thick skulls that while going woke may make you popular among the purple haired SJW’s that get Blue Checkmarks on Twitter, it’s not going to make you money. That is why the anti-woke crowd throws around the expression “Go woke, go broke.” Certain companies are slowly starting to realize this, such as Gillette Razors and Nike who lost billions when they decided to use woke advertising that didn’t apply to the majority of their customer base. Netflix after losing millions of subscribers, finally realized that wokeness isn’t as all that appealing to the American populace, so they abandoned several projects that had woke themes. Apparently, Disney and Amazon didn’t get the memo. Disney isn’t satisfied with producing unprofitable content that only appeals to a tiny minority of people, but they decided to stick their nose in Florida’s legislation by denouncing a bill that they really knew nothing about. I am not going to go through the details, so I will provide you this link Disney Attacks Parental Rights in Education – Florida Governor Defends It – Daily Citizen (focusonthefamily.com). Let’s just say that it cost Disney when Governor DeSantis took away their ability to govern themselves.

Amazon on the other hand created The Lord of the Rings series, which according to many viewers is a prime example of everything that is wrong with woke content. Supposedly you have female characters that are nothing more than Mary Sues that are completely perfect, while the male characters are shown as weak. Some have also complained about the lack of strong character development and good storytelling. There were even viewers who have gone as far as to call it a disgrace to the legacy of J.R.R Tolkien. Many of the cast members responded in the same way that the cast of Ghostbuster (2016) did when they attacked their audience and accused them of racism for not embracing “the diverse” cast of the series. So far, the series has been viewed by millions, but considering how many bad reviews they are getting from users, there is no telling how long the viewership is going to last.

The most amusing of all the woke failures was the abysmal failure of Bros, a movie billed as the first gay romantic comedy. During its opening week it only captured 4.5 million dollars at the Box Office. The movie’s star and writer Billy Eicher has also decided to take a cue from the Ghostbusters (2016) playbook and attack the moviegoers. He blames homophobes, Red States and pretty much every straight person that didn’t shell out his hard-earned money for the movie. While attacking the audience for not showing up to your movie is nothing new, I find this particular instance hilarious for many reasons. From what I can gather about this movie is that it wasn’t your typical romantic comedy. Aside from having gay protagonists, it also features graphic sex scenes between people of the same sex. I would hate to be the one to bursts this guy’s bubble, but most movie goers don’t find that appealing. When you make a movie that is only going to appeal to a small segment of the population, you shouldn’t be surprised when the larger portion doesn’t show up.

I think John Nolte of Breitbart.com did a superb job of pointing out the success of several gay based movies in his article Nolte: Homophobia? A Dozen Gay Movies Out-Grossed Billy Eichner’s ‘Bros’ By a Mile (breitbart.com). It’s amazing how the same homophobia that prevented the success of Bros, didn’t seem have the same effect on movies such as Brokeback Mountain, The Birdcage, Bahamian Rhapsody and Rocketman. Why? Because those movies had other qualities that appealed to the wider masses. I find the idea that the Red States somehow prevented people from flocking to this movie hysterical. I live in one of the most conservative Red States in the union and I can certainly say that only thing preventing me from going to see Bros is my own taste in movies. I think it’s worth pointing out that John Nolte did some simple math on the movie’s reception in his article Nolte: Homophobia? Math Proves 95% of Gays Avoided Billy Eichner’s ‘Bros’ (breitbart.com). So, it wasn’t just straight people that didn’t show up to Bros and I don’t see Eichner berating the people in his own community for not supporting the movie. Now, he just sulks and uses his Twitter account to complain about how mean old straight people don’t want to see his movie. If it weren’t for the fact that he likely blocks people who don’t agree with him, I would probably tell him that homophobia for the most part isn’t really the issue in our current era. For that matter, I don’t even think it’s an issue among most conservatives these days. The issue is that you created a movie that most of America didn’t want to see. Not even your target audience showed up to buy tickets. Take some prompts from other forms of gay cinema, such as Brokeback Mountain, The Birdcage, Rocketman or Bohemian Rhapsody. These were movies that appealed to gay and straight people alike. Why do you think that is? That is a question you should ponder before you move on to your next venture. Sadly, it seems as if Eichner seems to fit the stereotypical image of the woke crowd to a T. He seems to be the type that would choose to wallow in his own echo chamber than take constructive criticism.