Will Conservatives Punish Trump-Hating Stars?
Hollywood’s gold-plated brand may be suffering something not even a dozen “Star Wars” sequels can fix.
The industry has leaned left for some time now. The days of patriotic stars like John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Doris Day and Gary Cooper are over. Most Democratic National Conventions resemble Hollywood cocktail soirees.
That pleased liberal audiences while leaving conservatives deflated. Both groups still dutifully lined up to see new movies and, once a year, watch the Oscars telecast. After all, conservatives tend to have thick skins. They don’t burn campuses rather than hear opposing views.
Trumped by Reality
Then a certain reality show star came along. The rise of Donald Trump reduced Hollywood’s liberal elites to fountains of rage and disbelief.
I think I’m broken
I never ran smooth but I think I’m really broken, I’m sorry, I was funny for a while, good times, please keep fighting
— Joss Whedon (@joss) February 7, 2017
“Trump is Hitler!” “His cabinet overflows with racists!”
One actor, Michael Shannon, literally wished death on Trump supporters. George Clooney wagged his finger at Trump voters, as much as the man himself. Amy Schumer blasted Trump Train riders as members of the KKK.
The hectoring continued on social media. It’s reached a new intensity during awards season.
RELATED: Deadline.com Ties Oscar Terrorism Fears to Trump
Suddenly, every gala gave stars a chance to lecture half their potential ticket buyers. The days when an actor would simply thank his agent and/or her ma seemed over. You couldn’t ignore a star’s politics. They wouldn’t let you.
It wasn’t just President Trump in Hollywood’s cross hairs. Stars slammed members of Trump’s cabinet, too. They were just as racist, homophobic and sexist as their Commander in Chief. Or so the Hollywood elite alleged.
Conservative audiences started fighting back. They stayed home when Oscar winner Robert De Niro’s new film, “The Comedian,” hit theaters. The acting legend told us he wanted to punch Trump in the face. So audiences punched back as only they can.
RELATED: Judd Apatow Weaponizes Barron Trump Against His Daddy
Red State types rallied on social media. They blasted out-of-touch stars for their hypocrisy, sharing news stories that illustrated the gap between their rhetoric and reality.
And, over the weekend, they chose to watch anything else on TV not featuring gold statuettes. Ratings for the 89th annual Oscars telecast sank to a nine-year low.
It’s not as if the film industry itself is in fine shape at the moment. Consider this bleak assessment from The Wall Street Journal:
Sunday’s Oscars ceremony takes place during one of the gloomiest times for the film industry in recent memory. The news Wednesday was that Brad Grey would step down as CEO of Paramount Pictures, which lost nearly $500 million in fiscal 2016. That follows the January shocker that Sony Corp. would take a write-down of nearly $1 billion on its film unit … Worse, according to a Hollywood Reporter survey, 60% of Americans could not name a single Best Picture nominee.
That’s above and beyond the industry’s aggressive approach to alienate right-leaning customers. In short, has Hollywood reached a tipping point with Red State audiences?
HiT reached out to a number of prominent, right of center thinkers to find out.
Roger Simon
“The importance of Hollywood and the movies has diminished greatly since I started in the seventies. The juvenile political posturing of today’s stars only makes matters worse, potentially alienating half the audience. Why should anyone be more interested in Meryl Streep’s opinion than their plumbers?
In the old system the studios didn’t allow the stars to spout their political views. And they made better movies then – a not inconsequential coincidence.
Roger Simon is an Academy Award nominated screenwriter and CEO Emeritus of PJ Media
Jim Treacher
I haven’t cared about the Oscars in a long time. I don’t know if it’s the increasing politicization, or if I’m just like everybody else and I’m sick of a bunch of rich and famous people stroking each other’s… egos.
Plus, it’s 2017 and you don’t have to watch it. Just wait a few minutes for the memes to start.
Jim Treacher is a columnist for PJ Media.
John Ziegler
“This is a hard thing to quantify. I haven’t seen any data indicating that box office has significantly suffered since Trump’s election, but I can certainly see Trump super fans boycotting over this issue, and that’s certainly their right.
However, I frankly haven’t seen Hollywood as being any more partisan than normal, it’s just that they are currently out of power. They were just as bad in opposition to Bush, especially in his second term, in my opinion.”
John Ziegler is a columnist for Mediaite and host of “The World According to Zig” podcast.
Christian Bladt
“I think that, as a whole, Hollywood’s aggressive political stance hasn’t created a tipping point for all of Red State America, but, I think what you will see is that SOME (or even MOST) of Red State America has reached a tipping point with certain celebrities taking certain stances.
It’s a lot less subjective than with a musician whose opinions might alienate you. It’s a much bigger departure to swear off your favorite singer or band because their outspoken ideology is different than yours. I think that it’s a lot easier for people to just decide “I’m not going to see a new Meryl Streep movie” than “I grew up in rural New Jersey but can’t listen to Bruce Springsteen because he endorsed Obama and Hillary.”
RELATED: ‘Oath’ Director: Fascist Comedy Is About Trump
In that sense, it’s really an issue of ART versus ENTERTAINMENT. If your FAVORITE actor suddenly comes out and says something, it’s a lot more difficult to swear off your favorite movies and not see anything new. As an example, if someone decided they didn’t like Vin Diesel’s politics, would they then hate all the past “Fast and Furious” films and swear off upcoming installments?
It’s a lot harder to do that. But, for a lot of Americans (Red State or not) it’s a lot easier to swear off of critically acclaimed arthouse films because of what someone has to say.
I think that what it comes down to is that the majority of conservatives are used to being on the other side of the equation from “the arts” to use a catch-all term. I would think that the majority of conservatives have long since reconciled that they have to decide if they can separate the on-screen George Clooney or behind-the-camera Rob Reiner from the person who comments publicly on current events. So, unfortunately, it’s just more of the same.
I DO think that it will inform decisions for new movies and up and coming actors. It might really shape whether or not you check out a movie, TV show or listen to music from someone new on the scene but you really feel like doesn’t represent you.”
Christian Bladt co-hosts “The Dennis Miller Option” podcast with his former radio partner Dennis Miller. He also hosts both Afterbuzz TV’s “The Trump Report” and the weekly podcast “The Bladtcast.”
Stephen Miller
“Hollywood won’t change dismissing conservative or American audiences in general because they believe they don’t need them anymore. With more markets opening up in China and Hollywood reaching out more to China for financing (See Marvel) they believe the American audience has become expendable
The more they become activists or outspoken in the political arena, it’s because they believe they don’t need the 48% of the country that opposes their views. They believe it’s as much a business decision as it is a personal one.
‘American Sniper’ was the highest-grossing film of two years ago. It made more at the box office than the final ‘Hunger Games’ film. The problem with Hollywood isn’t so much bias, but they don’t know who they are making films for anymore.
There are several factors that can play into low Oscar ratings. Streaming + everyone knows now that the show is going to probably be five-hours long. I can barely get through these comments much less spend four hours watching something on TV. Couple that with again, 48 percent of the country knowing they are a target for a room full of aggrieved millionaires in designer clothes, people simply tune out.
Stephen Miller is a contributor to Heat Street, National Review, IJR and Ricochet. He co-hosts “The Conservatarians” podcast with Jon Gabriel.
Joel Pollak
“Hollywood has damaged its brand, but that’s partly because its market has changed. China is crucial to Hollywood in a way the U.S. no longer is.
So the mistreatment of American audiences may partly, if unconsciously, be driven by the idea that we simply don’t matter as much anymore to the Hollywood business model.
Of course, you never want to alienate any consumers, and even some lefties in Hollywood understand that and try to maintain some discipline, but that self-control does slip at times.”
Joel Pollak is the editor of Breitbart California and author of “How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution
“
John Nolte
“As far as Hollywood’s nasty and divisive politics, I doubt Sunday night woke anyone who wasn’t already woke. The real problem is how foolish the industry looked. Good grief, five months of award ceremonies all come down to that final moment when Best Picture is announced, and they completely blew it. Instead of being angry over being insulted, we are now pointing and laughing, and that will only further hurt whatever residual moral authority the industry had. Their ability to persuade is even more eroded.
RELATED: How ‘Ghostbusters’ Exposed Blatant Media Bias
Movie-wise, the film industry is already as marginalized as it can be. Less than 1 percent of the American population saw ‘Moonlight.’ Tentpoles will still do what they do, because no amount of Trump-trashing is going to keep ‘Avengers 3’ or ‘Fast & Furious 8’ from grossing $400 million domestic. When it comes to the box office, it will always come down to the product.
The industry overall, though, is an even bigger joke than they were Sunday night. And that hurts everyone and everything, including Democrat politicians, associated with them. And that is very good for America.”
John Nolte is an editor and film critic with Breitbart News.
Sarah Hoyt
“The distrust of the elites is both that people are getting the feeling they’ve been told pernicious lies (they have. Marxism) but also that the elites can’t DO anything, which is also true but only partly due to Marxism. it’s mostly that tech is changing things at a level most of us haven’t processed.
I think Hollywood is the next to get hit with the tech stick, like ebooks. It’s becoming so much easier and simple to do movies, animations, etc. And the stars’ and elites’ behavior is pushing people to a maybe slightly inferior product but one that doesn’t insult them. Exactly as it happened first with music, then with books.
I think the next ten years will be interesting times for movies and acting.”
Sarah Hoyt is a novelist whose work ranges from science fiction to Shakespearean yarns.
I protest Hollywierd the only way that will hurt them is to download and to watch their movies for free online. This is not piracy, it’s an act of protest against the Hollywierd leftist hypocritical actors. Most of their movies are unwatchable reruns and I am not wasting my time watching most of them.
Most Hollywood movies do not make money. They are just vanity projects. The Hollywood billionaire socialists prop each other up. Look at Jeff Bezos, he just signed Deniro to a gazillion dollar deal to act on Amazon Prime. No one will watch and they will NEVER release the true ratings. Look at Clooney, he lives in a villa in Italy and his movies (except for the Ocean movies) make very little money. The gravy train will not stop for them as long as there are zillionaires and liberal stupid investors. Watch “The Producers” to see how it works.
So much THIS! If the Right keep on forgetting how much the Lefty elite prop each other up-from BLM to Media to Protests to Academia to Hollywood to Endorsements-then they will continue to rightfully lose.
These people are not stupid. They are hypocrites. Lying sociopathic hypocrites.
I hate when people say that liberals are uninformed or stupid-NO, they know just what they are doing. They think they are better than conservatives because they have big hearts and conservatives are mean.
The problem isn’t the differing of opinions, it’s the out right hatred Hollywood is spewing towards us. It’s kind of hard getting past someone telling you, very openly that they hate you. For a good chunk of my life I used to go to movies once or twice a week without fail, I’d give smaller films or others that I thought I might not like a chance. Now I can literally count the number of times I went to the theater last year on one hand.
Yes we will punish Hollywood. Why would we financially support those that are hostile to us?
Hollywood definitely isn’t helping itself with its outspoken liberalism. But I think this manifests itself mostly in movies where the audience has reason to suspect it will insult conservative sensibilities. Movies that seem apolitical should be fine. But the big reason for box office problems is the incredible growth of high quality television and internet series. That is where all the best dramatic action is nowadays.
Eliminate every tax break that benefits the entertainment industry ….. bunch of rich people who don’t need them anyway.
I would suggest the opposite–suppose the California GOP were to organize itself, get its act together, and center on economic policy–cutting taxes, INCLUDING for businesses, and that includes Hollywood. Incentivize the industry to make movies in California again–which means a major boost to the economy. In the meantime, focusing on “streamlining” (cutting) the budget.
Build bridges, don’t burn them. Heck, Donald Trump built bridges with the UNIONS, with his “American Jobs” policies, particularly in the Rust Belt. THE UNIONS!!! If we can bring THEM to our side, is it really so hard to believe Hollywood can be tantalized with a carrot and honey, instead of a stick and vinegar?
Brad, let me give you a swift strike to your left cheek with thy open hand. California GOP will never have any influence on Hollywood elite. Never. Never.you seemed to be glossing over the point…they don’t need your money.
First, I have no idea what you’re saying with that first sentence. And my name isn’t Brad. lol
Second, the reason the California GOP doesn’t have any influence is, well, they don’t know how to fight–how to take advantage of the opporitunities they have, how to organize, and so on. California Republicans have pretty much given up–that’s why Hillary “won the popular vote” as it were: they thought “Well, my vote won’t count anyway, so why bother?” The state party failed to garner support.
And again, if Trump can build bridges with THE UNIONS…how exactly is Hollywood an impossible target?
The politics or antics of an actor can be a tipping factor me me. Take Passengers, which I really wanted to see Chris Pratt in. But…Jennifer Lawrence.
Or Joss Whedon, whom I hated from Buffy, then loved from the Avengers 1 and 2. Now he’s ‘broken’ because of Trump. And I’m back to being comfortable avoiding his output.
The thing is, I have so many entertainment possibilities. So many classic movies I haven’t seen or want to see again. So many books to read or write. So many video games on Steam I haven’t installed.
Movies are a luxury. And it’s an easy cut to make if someone chooses to call me their enemy.
The simple fact is, boycotts don’t WORK anymore. The Lefties in Hollywood go, “Well screw YOU! We don’t need you, anyway!”
So how do we fight them? INCREASE our influence. Get into the industry. Basically…do what they did, and change the industry from within.
I agree with changing the industry, but I doubt you can do it directly from “within”, there is too much resistance to conservatives. The best trick right now is to form new studios that are explicitly about entertainment and not ideology. Don’t come out as conservative, but rather as interested in entertaining as many people as possible. And don’t set up in California. Set up in a conservative state.
Use Youtube and the internet to generate interest. Find young actors who haven’t been through the indoctrination that is the SAG membership dance and give them opportunities to act. Make sure your writers put together entertaining stories.
Rent equipment or purchase equipment that is worn, but works. Use a barn as your soundstage and find a local art college or high school art class to form the core of your set designers. Find a young man or women into fashion and offer them the opportunity to do costume design for you. (or if you plan on fantasy and sci-fi, go to comic conventions and talk to some of the cos-play participants.)
Plan on finishing a film every 2-3 months. Build a cycle where a film goes from idea to ready to distribute in 9-10 months.
Never sacrifice quality. If a script isn’t ready, move to the next. If an actor proves unable to handle the part, switch them out. Be prepared to delay a film a month if necessary for reshoots or extra editing/post production.
I figure it will take an investment of $10-$12 million to get started and run for 1-2 years. If you have the creative people necessary you can probably get some movies to pay for the operation by then, especially if you can get them into theatres, but that might be difficult if you don’t use SAG actors and IATSE people for everything else. (Or whatever guilds/unions are demanded for each position, there are more than I can remember.)
Well, that’s the thing, isn’t it? How many theaters did “The Arroyo” get into? We need to find a surefire way to ensure wide distribution–and I hate to say it, but the only way to do that is to impress the distributors–Paramount, 20th Century Fox, whoever.
Look, I would see your point about setting up an “alternative Hollywood” in, say, Dallas–after all, Robert Rodriguez has his own company, Troublemaker, in Austin. However, the thing is, if that WERE the way to do things, the Left would have done it after being blacklisted.
Remember that. There was a time when the Far Left was all but driven OUT of Hollywood. How did they, in the spans of a decade or two, turn that around and become the establishment?
They went underground, and kept on infiltrating.
Money and connections. Without them, we’re just relegated to super-limited releases that no one but the select few know about.
Ah, but back when there was the “blacklist” there wasn’t an internet that allowed media to be streamed directly to audiences. There wasn’t an internet where your ads can’t be blocked by network executives who demand fealty to a certain ideology.
Its easy to come up with supposed blocks to setting up an alternative, but right now the ease of media distribution eliminates almost all of those blocks. The main problem is going to be on the creative side. You need to find writers who can write entertaining material that is non-ideological. Don’t try to write strictly for conservative audiences. Go for moderate messages that a vast majority will like. It makes attempts to block distribution of your work look reactionary and stupid and will bring in profits faster. The goal should be to steal as much audience from the left as you can, so that their leftist tripe dies out due to lack of funds.
Oh, I strongly agree with your points, but it doesn’t change my own: Hollywood CAN be taken back, the way the Left took it in the first place.
And again, how well ARE movies like “The Arroyo” doing among non-Conservative audiences? No one but us knows about it, because it didn’t have the kind of marketing a studio-distributed film would. Internet or no internet.
We are watching Hollywood and the Democrat Party, but I repeat myself, destroy themselves in real-time. It is glorious. Payback is a muthaucker.
Hollywood is punishing themselves. They’re really good at self-inflicted wounds.
Glenn Reynolds has long advocated removing some favorable federal tax treatment the Hollywood crowd enjoys that mere mortals do not.
Several points worth considering:
1. The stars aren’t just offensive. They’re stupid. They relentlessly cliche-monger, but the cliches are based on juvenile fallacies. For example, they blather about walls, when anyone with a triple digit iq knows that the wall is one of the earliest and most significant human inventions. The current dimwit pope hides behind the Vatican wall.
2. The stars aren’t just stupid. They’re hypocritical. Obama just signed a book deal for 60 million. Harry Reid became fabulously wealthy “on a public servant’s salary.” No movies will be made about their staggering hypocrisy.
Moonlight presented as gritty realism a plot line in which a drug dealer followed a young boy into a deserted tenement and revealed himself to be a tender father figure with a girlfriend who is a cross between Mother Teresa and Halle Berry. Uh huh. That’s right, let’s glorify the humane nature of the people who are preying off our young. The only thing to top the stupidity of the plot line was the bizarre and simplistic cliche-mongering by the “brilliant young” director. Oh, by the way. When the main gay character announced to the love of his life that no one had touched him since their encounter years before, my viewing room erupted in laughter. Sure. Nobody touched you. In the joint. Sure thing.
Stars aren’t stupid, they are ignorant.
Few of them have been to college. Many don’t finish high school before they have to abandon their education in order to act. The ones that do go to college tend to either be quiet, or went to very liberal schools that sheltered them while they only increased their ignorance (Emma Watson going to Brown.)
I’ve heard enough stories about meetings in Hollywood where incredibly ignorant things were said to understand that it has nothing to do with intelligence. For example, during a meeting to discuss what movies should be greenlit a producer spits out, “I’ve got it we should cast Julia Roberts as Harriet Tubman”. The story I heard about this event says the man showed no shame after one of the other men at the table pointed out that Harriet Tubman was a black woman.
Sure there is a lot of hypocrisy in Hollywood, but the bigger problem is that most of the money people have no clue how the middle class lives. However, this could be fixed. Sarah Hoyt is correct. Technology is almost to the point where a movie can be filmed using a cell phone, edited on your average PC and posted to You Tube for anyone to watch. I expect that within 1-2 years we’ll see small groups of conservatives start to do just that. And if they can get some decent writing and acting, they will find audiences who are sick of Hollywood.
The only question is if Hollywood will realize the danger and change course. Personally I think they are too addicted to the idea that China will save them to turn the car around. But I also think they are very wrong about China and that they are headed to their inevitable destruction.
I have seem some very well done YouTube videos produced a small team of people about a number of topics. As, Sarah noted, the technology is readily available and with some practice and discipline any competent person could turn out a high quality video..
The greatest point is that unlike the Arabs who were pumping money into Hollyweird years ago, the Chinese do not NEED Hollywood nor do they need Hollywood to spread their propaganda so they can spread their religion like the Arabs.
So where it was fine for the Arabs to turn a hypocritical blind eye to super liberal Hollywood films because their end game of infiltrating Western businesses was greater, the Chinese won’t roll over so easily.
They will also not want to lose their money, like the Arabs were fine doing as we can see with the Saudi’s paying all & sundry to lobby for them.
Kinda like Chinese Restaurants.
I already have a short list of actors whose movies I refuse to see (Jane Fonda, Woody Allen, Woody Harrelson, Matt Damon, and a couple others). No directors yet, but Josh Whedon is working hard to be the first.
Mine isn’t very short anymore. I’m pretty much stuck with the blockbuster/tentpole type movies if I don’t want to watch an actor I am trying to avoid. And they show up in those, but I’m willing to ignore that fact if the studio has kept them sufficiently muzzled during the marketing phase.
I get that. But with more and more anti-American bile spewing forth from Hollywood every year, it’s getting harder to find something decent. Heck, it’s gotten to the point where some STUDIOS might have to go on my Don’t See list. (I’m looking at you, Disney.)
The only “Disney” films I watch are the Marvel ones, and that mostly because I was a huge fan of Marvel comics 25 years ago which appears to be where most of the stories are coming from. The day Marvel Studios starts going with modern variants on their characters is the day I stop watching their movies.
Me too. But if Whedon doesn’t get his head out of his posterior I might forgo further Avengers films as well.
I’ve loved almost everything Whedon has ever produced or directed, but if he doesn’t stop calling me an idiot and hatemonger because I voted against Hillary I’m gonna rethink that.
Whedon said he’d never do another Avengers movie after Age of Ultron. He didn’t like how strict Kevin Feige is when it comes to demanding adherence to the original story and script.
He is dead to me. His rants reveal him to be totally unhinged, a raging, egotistical maniac. Who cares what he thinks about politics?
I just read books, which now cost a dollar to five dollars each, often with shipping included and watch old classic films, which were made when they had real actors, Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Gary, Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Marlene Deitrich, memorable people.
Good books broaden the mind and make you think.
If you want entertainment, get the great old movies. I still get chills when the Maltese Falcon gets unwrapped at the end of the movie…and I can feel Joel Cairo’s pain and anger when it turns out it’s a fake.
Hollywood “stars” are really pretty dumb. They can’t differentiate between legal immigration and illegal immigration.
How many of these “stars” enforce their own borders (property rights) and would think of letting illegal immigrants squat?
Bob, with all due respect, they can tell the difference between legal and illgeal immigration. Even the average Hollywood star, with all the depth of a bumper sticker knows the difference. The left wants to blur that distinction, like almost every other logical distinction, like those between man and woman, they want to be claim those who oppose illegal immigration are “anti-immigrant.”
Elections matter even more than Hollywood knows. If conservatives really wanted to get Hollywood’s attention they’d agitate for putting the copyright laws back to when they were a common sense 30 or so years. It would result in better movies because new properties would have to be created instead of living off something like “Star Wars” for 50 years or rebooting “Spider Man” every other year.
Also books and stories that are not currently being made into films due to the excessive dues of authors would also increase the range of films being made.
Hollywood is now forever demanding higher taxes, so let’s give Hollywood exactly what it’s asking for.
Long, long past time to repeal the Hollywood tax cuts, and restore the 20% federal excise tax on movie tickets. The excise tax should of course be extended to gross revenues for cable, download, CDs, and streaming revenue.
We’ll call it the Meryl Streep tax fairness act.
As Democrats, they would be happy to go along as they know the value of raising taxes “For the children”!! Also, it’s their “patriotic duty” as Mr. Biden says.
They would at first, and then they’d notice that the $28 million that Jennifer Lawrence got for performing in Passengers is now a payday no one can offer due to the fact that the movie will have to pay $20 million in taxes for every $100 million in ticket sales. Worse, that same payday should someone find the funds to pay it, will be worth perhaps $23 million after the next excise taxes take their bite out of the entertainers income.
Personally, I believe that any media personality heard to advocate for higher taxes (on the rich) should be immediately told that they have voluntarily entered into the “I want to be paid like a middle class citizen” tax program where all income more than 2 times the national average is taxed at 100%, and that includes the values of all amenities such as free cars, free travel, free housing, etc.
I bet that not one celebrity would say a word about higher taxes after that. 😛
You are correct. The movie industry was mostly conservative in the era when taxes were 70 to 90+ percent of your popular movie star’s yearly earnings. Besides, a lot of their activism is driven by guilt. Take 8/10s of their money each year and the guilt problem is solved.
That’s the way it used to be. I remember the stories about Clark Gable complaining about how he never had any money left at the end of the year due to the taxes he had to pay. And one never heard him advocate for higher taxes. He may have been left wing (I don’t know for sure) but he never asked for higher taxes.
No. Better would be to reduce the length of Copyright to 1 month.
How about an extra tax on profits and royalties from ludicrous 80s costume dramas? That should hit her but good….
Even better? Ignore them. If enough people quit going to theaters, their revenues would vanish, and the loss of money would be much more hurtful to them than new taxes for which the progturds will always have loopholes.
If there’s one thing that celebrities can’t stand, it’s being ignored.