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.
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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.
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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.”
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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
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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.
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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.
My 2 cents: I used to overlook their idiocy, like one of the above contributors said, but I did hit a tipping point. For the first time I HAVE weighed my consumption of Hollywood product against my disgust for the ever increasing platitudes, hypocrisy, arrogance, and disgusting behavior and started tuning out and forgoing the trip to the theatre AND more importantly not buying their movies online.
Judd, De Niro, and other main liners; used to be favorites of mine, but now I can’t seem to watch one of their movies without seeing their arrogant, hypocritical, asininity and thus can’t enjoy their character in a movie anymore because I keep seeing their spew and it makes me want to throw up. It might not be so bad if they made good points, but their sooo stupid. They think because they play smart people that they’re actually smart, but listen to some of their platitudes and you see how really dumb many of them are. Just listen to Bruce Springsteen; somebody get that guy a brain.
So, it is having an effect even though they refuse to see it yet. They will though, and China or not, the American market is still a world wide force to be reckoned with. They’re leaving a ton of money on the table, but its hard to prove a negative. I suspect though, at some point management will start telling them to shut the F up or your fired because this is costing us serious money. However, like in anything, once we find other outlets for entertainment time and dollars and we’re long gone, its not so easy to get us back.
At this point I don’t care if the whole lot goes down the tubes. I’m learning to do better things with my time. Its hard to find the words for the disgust that I feel and that I am positive many normal Americans have for them. So now they can commiserate together in their exclusive little pist off world.
Allowing runaway immigration is a wealth transfer from the middle and lower classes to the influx of migrants…both in terms of taxes used to provide benefits to the migrants and in terms of wage deflation. This is by definition regressive, as it hits those earning less the hardest–a migrant may take my job, but Matt Damon’s is probably safe. And Hollywood could care less since they’re largely unaffected by the mess that they promote.
So yeah, I’m only too happy to return the favor to those that would take money out of my pockets. I don’t go to movies anymore, and I’m going to quit watching most professional sports too.
haven’t been to a movie in over 30 years and will never go to one again.
every person on every awards show is a piece of manure , no decent human being would watch the product
I gave up on what the American movie/television/music industries put out long ago.
Partially because of their sneering, snarky disdain and hatred of people like me.
Partially because of the non stop leftard propaganda they’re putting out.
Partially because it is pure crap with “talent” whose only real talent was getting under the right desk to play a skin flute recital.
I’m not lacking for entertainment, in fact I find more interesting things to watch and listen to now that I’ve given up on them. There are plenty of movies, TV series, documentaries, music, etc. out there that are vastly more original, entertaining and informative than any of the crap the American media complex puts out. For example I discovered the old British TV series “Men Behaving Badly” which is hilarious and could never be made today. Old Carol Burnett shows which are funnier than anything currently produced. I’ve watched excellent documentaries and docudramas online that are informative, interesting and totally devoid of leftards AGW or other propaganda. Music? Who needs the autotuned pablum or that crap called Rap/Hip Hop when you can explore the works of Miles Davis, Wes Montgomery, John Coltrane, etc.
You get the idea…and if the American media complex doesn’t get the idea soon they’ll be hurting for certain. If they think their new Chinese masters are going to put up with their B.S. they are fools.
Eh, I already know that Hollywood is filled with broken people who are not particularly bright (or at least no more intelligent than the average person). Of course they are going to gravitate to the party that makes them feel good about themselves for supporting it and buy into every rumor about the other. I don’t boycott movies or show because they contain any particular actor or director, I just don’t watch most of them because they suck. When they come out with something truly original and entertaining (another King Kong movie, really? Really Hollywood?) I will watch it regardless of who was involved in making it. (One exception to this rule is Roman Polanski; he’s an odious, evil troll who will not get a penny from me if I can help it.) For example, I do not believe Tom Cruise is a particularly good actor and I don’t care for his cult, but he has made some original, if underrated, movies in the past few years. I liked Oblivion as a slightly too long Twilight Zone episode. Edge of Tomorrow (or whatever they’re titling it these days) was another original movie.
My wife and I watch a lot of movies. It’s a favorite escape for us. We are able to separate the actor from their personal lives for a couple of reasons. One, we have a lot of close friends who are very liberal but we respect their right to have a different opinion than we do. It doesn’t affect our friendships. Two, the electoral results of President Trump and the huge gains we experienced in down ticket races is proof positive that their bully pulpit opinions are vastly overrated and insignificant. I love “Stranger Things” even though, quite frankly, I couldn’t care less what the cast thinks about anything.
Sure.
Frankly I have always been amazed that folks who go to work and read lines that someone else wrote for them, who are frequently under educated, THINK that their view of world events is somehow extra special. They are ALL mass hypocrites.
They preach climate change, then fly around in their private jets and have mansions that use 100,000 gallons of water a month. They preach pristine wilderness and protection of natural habitat, then they buy up just such land, on some shore somewhere, and throw up a monument to their egos.
Let’s face it, what Meryl Streep says about anything matters about as much as what some bearded guy in Times Sqaure is yelling about the end of the earth.
Most people still are not getting it. We did not give a damn last year about the oscars, we could care less two years ago what Clooney said. It is not Tump, it is half of America saying we do not care what you think. It was way before Trump. Trump di not NOT lead the movement, he smartly rode the wave.
For me, this issue isn’t what celebrities say outside of entertainment – I expect them to be fools. The issue is the destruction of entertainment itself.
I don’t like to watch movies and TV shows that gratuitously offend me. Being lectured by sanctimonious actors during what is supposed to be entertainment does that. Plot lines that are mostly devices to sell the latest progressive idea do that. How can I sustain the illusion that I am in the reality of the show when it keeps jarring me out of it with discordant memes?
As an example, we like to watch Law and Order: SVU. But, sometimes the plot is so radically feminist that we just turn it off. We rarely go to movies any more unless we know that they aren’t filled up with plots and memes and speeches lecturing us.
Hollywood, despite your pretenses, you are selling entertainment, not enlightenment. And, from my viewpoint, you are hardly enlightened at all, no better at understanding the human condition than the rest of us.
Elysium
Who wants to watch a bunch of high school dropouts do one act plays endlessly on a giant screen? All these people do is wear costumes and repeat lines someone else wrote. I haven’t watched a Hollyweird movie in decades. They are morally bankrupt and intellectually empty.
How many of these actors and directors would criticize China?
Richard Gere will never be in a big motion picture ever because his films wouldn’t be allowed in China.
Exactly. Look at all the tech companies. When it comes to China, all their standards fly right out the window.
It’s not exactly punishment. But,to enjoy a normal hero movie, you have to like the hero somewhat, cheer them on, hope for their success. That’s harder to do when the person playing the hero has expressed his profound contempt for me and everything I stand for.
I refuse to “sell rope” to those who want to hang me. That includes entertainers and businesses.
How is this even a question?
I won’t give Hollywood five cents of my money.
Laura Ingram had a book titled “Shut up and sing.” If the actor is virulent enough in their hatred of our country (e.g. Sean Penn, Tim Robbins) I can’t get past that when I see them on the screen. I can’t “suspend my disbelief.” Once that happens to an actor they are toast. If it is run of the mill group think silliness, I give them a break if they make good movies.
I don’t know if conservatives can do more damage to Hollywood than Hollywood has done to itself. You can’t aggravate half of your ticket buying public and expect success. I think the days of the blockbuster are about over, especially for those actors looking down their noses at the country away from the coasts.
Personally, I hope we start looking at how Hollywood does business and the tax breaks they get and come down hard on them. We can do without Hollywood but, can Hollywood do without us? We might find out.
One of the most fascinating disconnects is between the Box Office figures and who gets nominated for Best Picture. The last movie which won Best Picture and was the top Box Office draw was “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” in 2004, and previous to that was “Titanic” in 1998. In 2010 “The Hurt Locker” won Best Picture and had the lowest Box Office figures of any Best Picture winner, and was Number 116 in terms of Box office for the year.
The movies Hollywood makes and gets all exited about at Oscar time are not the movies the public spends its movie money on.