Can Woke Hollywood Survive Biden’s Recession?
Belt tightening. Major movie cancellations. Show BUSINESS is back
Get woke, go broke they said, but Hollywood didn’t listen.
Progressive project after progressive project fizzled, but studio bean counters kept their cool.
- An uber-feminist “Charlie’s Angels?” Eh, the ‘70s aren’t hip anymore.
- A girl-power “Terminator: Dark Fate?” Hasta la vista, baby.
- A “Party of One” reboot with a side order of ICE demonization? Once was enough, apparently.
- An all-female “Ghostbusters?” Toxic fans brought it down.
Suddenly, woke Hollywood is concerned about its bottom line, and progressive messaging is getting in the way.
The irony of all ironies? The same industry that promoted Joe Biden’s candidacy is feeling the sting of his recession. And it spells trouble for the industry’s woke revolution.
Major players are tightening their belts, canceling shows that might otherwise get longer leashes on life and erasing projects brimming with woke flourishes.
Show business is back, baby.
RELATED: WOKE IS JUST PART OF THE MCU’S PROBLEM NOW
The first sign of trouble came from Netflix, the undisputed streaming king. Earlier this year, the platform experienced its first subscriber downgrade following a flurry of woke projects.
- “Moxie”
- “He’s Expecting”
- “Dear White People”
- “The Break with Michelle Wolf”
- “Knock Down the House”
- “Cuties”
- Hannah Gadsby specials
- Chelsea Handler specials
The ramifications of Netflix’s bad news kicked in immediately.
Team Netflix doubled down on its commitment to free speech, embraced “problematic” comedy from Ricky Gervais for the sake of more eyeballs and told woke employees to pound sand, in so many words. Belt tightening commenced, including the recent cancellation of the lesbian vampire thriller “First Kill.”
The usual woke subjects kicked and screamed online over that news, but Netflix claimed the numbers don’t have the show’s back.
SAVE FIRST KILL.
There’s literally no reason to cancel a profitable show with record-setting numbers and a dedicated fanbase. Especially when it has fantastic representation that makes so many people feel seen.#SaveFirstKill #RenewFirstKill pic.twitter.com/RNZE2myX9Q
— Marisa (@Hot4Haught) August 3, 2022
The platform even nixed upcoming projects tied to uber-woke Meghan Markle (“Pearl”) and Ibram X. Kendi (“Antiracism Baby”).
A company with a “Stay Woke” art installation in one of its corporate buildings now has little patience for the woke mob. The bottom line matters.
Again.
Netflix is hardly the only company worried about its financial status.
Warner Bros. Discovery just did the unthinkable, dumping a nearly finished HBO Max movie with a price tag somewhere between $70 – 90 million, depending on which news outlet you trust.
“Batgirl” won’t see the light of day, becoming a super tax write off instead of the next DC franchise.
The move outraged the progressive Left. The film’s star, Leslie Grace, is Latina. Her co-stars include trans actor Ivory Aquino. The script came from Christina Hodson, who previously penned the feminist flop “Birds of Prey.”
None of that mattered to Warner Bros. Discovery suits. They sensed a clunker and acted swiftly, understanding how comic book fans and social justice types might react to these matters.
They made the hard call anyway.
RELATED: WOKE REPORTERS DESPERATE TO KEEP CANCEL CULTURE ALIVE
Once upon a time – say, a year ago – a woke backlash could coax Hollywood to reverse course. The “Batgirl” cancellation, starring a Latina actress and directed by two men of color (Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah), would have sparked enough outrage to make Warner Bros. do an about face.
The studio might apologize by guaranteeing sequels for all the key players as a form of restitution.
It hasn’t happened yet, meaning it probably won’t.
It’s the same company that’s standing by “Flash,” the 2023 mega-release starring an actor tied to new, frightening headlines on a regular basis. Ezra Miller, who appears to be a deeply troubled soul, would be canceled under most conditions, along with any projects he had in the hopper.
Stars have been canceled for far less.
Instead, Warner Bros. Discovery has confirmed it plans to release Miller’s “Flash” next year, Cancel Culture be damned. Why? It’s a guaranteed money maker and apparently sets the superhero franchise in motion for years to come, no matter how much bad PR the release generates.
David Zaslav’s confirmed “The Flash” will release in 2023 — two days after news broke that Warner Bros. decided to shelve “Batgirl”, which was produced exclusively for HBO Max and greenlit by the previous corporate regime.
from @d_arkin https://t.co/dW0sHrcGQD
— Doha Madani (Taylor’s Version)🧣 (@DohaMadani) August 4, 2022
The hits keep on coming for Warner Bros. Discovery.
The company announced that HBO Max is merging with Discovery+ weeks after CNN+, featuring woke personalities like Jemele Hill, crashed and burned in spectacular fashion.
Meanwhile, HBO Max is yanking poorly performing originals like “An American Pickle” from its platform, presumably as another cost-saving move.
TheWrap.com reports HBO Max is mulling a 70 percent reduction in its development staff.
Other woke Hollywood content is getting the heave ho around town.
TBS’s basement-rated “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” finally ran out of woke goodwill. The cable giant canceled Bee’s show after a seven-year run known for endless clapter, vulgarity and progressive outrage.
The show earned a recent renewal despite those embarrassing numbers, but in the Biden recession keeping a woke female host employed wasn’t reason enough to keep the show afloat.
It’s a miracle Hulu’s “Woke” series (yes, that’s its title) made it to season 2 before getting the ax.
RELATED: IS LETSGETFR.EE THE ULTIMATE WOKE FAIL?
Even bubbled Hollywood executives may realize two of the most woke-free movies in memory – “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” are also the highest-grossing films of the past year.
The Los Angeles Times is even sounding the alarm over Hollywood’s reaction to Biden’s recession.
Hollywood’s woke obsession won’t end overnight.
We’ll soon see a “National Treasure” reboot with an open borders message.
The upcoming “Andor” from Disney+ promises an anti-Trump narrative addressing America’s so-called reduction in rights, a far-Left talking point that fits the industry’s recent mindset.
Disney seems fixed on woke programming, from children’s fare brimming with sexually aware content to projects like “Lightyear” which shoe-horn in same-sex relationships.”
The Mouse House is shrugging off its stock price fall this year, signaling it’s big enough to survive Biden’s recession and the degradation of its family-friendly brand.
Show business comes with an asterisk in the modern era. Woke Hollywood has been willing to swallow hard and accept a certain amount of losses to send their preferred messages.
Thanks to Biden’s recession, those numbers may no longer add up.
UPDATE: More “woke” programming gets the heave-ho. Ellen DeGeneres’s kiddie show “Little Ellen” just got the hook despite at least 20 episodes were created and ready for distribution. The show featured same-sex couples as part of the regular content.
Been a movie lover my whole life and it seems that movies in America have died bc of this woke mind control. For my mental health Ive even stopped watching the trailers for movies. In the first few seconds the message is always there; men are bad unless they are black (then they are superior) and women are good. It’s communicated implicitly through gestures, eye rolls, dialogue, narrative, etc. The same story repeated ad nauseum.
My take is that the woke, ideologue, mostly intersectionalist feminists CEOs were hired with 3-4 year contracts and the board members and owners are in a catch 22. On one hand the feminists and BLM activist are destroying both the company’s brands, core loyal customer bases, and revenue and on the other hand the owners cannot risk firing them and also damaging their personal and company brands for being labeled sexist and racist. It’s perplexing bc it’s a psychological hostage situation at the highest ranks using a victimhood form of tyranny that western civilization hasn’t witnessed that I’m aware of
And the current CEOs have religious fervor for their causes that trumps making profit or satisfying customers. This is about revenge against past generations and slavery (although blacks did the same in Africa), gaining power over males, destroying what they perceive as the patriarchy, rumination and just a ton of misinformation about non-black males (who’ve been portrayed as evil), plus a web of psychosis, narcissism and hysteria amongst the crop of feminist/ BLM CEO’s
The last plug I pulled was watching Prime after they released Rings of Power. And I used to legitimately rent each movie so I was spending $60-$80/ month on Amazon alone. But nope, they wanted to try and indoctrinate my mind and I drew my boundary. I cannot and will not let that stuff into my head. It is designed to confuse you and lower your self esteem as a non black male.
I’m personally leaving the US, and will only make movies in Europe and watch movies from Europe.
They will probably drive the industry and country to total collapse on every level. I think there egos have probably swelled too much, the indoctrinations in schools has gone too deep, and they have disassociated from nature, reality and reason too far.
Feminists have already stated their goal: destroy the patriarchy. And that is what men without a backbone are allowing to happen. Gentlemen you are in a psychological war. The only way to win is to make ‘no contact’ with anything that’s woke.
Woke “entertainment,” if you can call it that, is preachy, dishonest, and annoying as all get out. It never presents a single well-developed character or story line; it’s obvious that the current crop of “content creators” in Hollywood can’t write.
They’ve chased the older white men out — the very people who knew the industry best and were developing the most original stories. You’d never find someone like Dalton Trumbo or Billy Wilder in today’s Hollywood.
I used to align myself with progressive causes, but am appalled by the damage the far left has done to American free speech, culture, and education. The sooner wokeness is marginalized, the better off we’ll be. I know it’s old fashioned, but I think stories should stay close to their source material, and talent and integrity should be rewarded over skin color and gender identity.
People need to boycott Disney,
Disney+,
ABC,
ESPN,
Touchstone Pictures
Marvel
Lucasfilm
Pixar
Hollywood Records, Disney Music Group
Walt’s goal was to entertain and embrace the very best of America, and not embrace political messaging of activists and deviant groups.
Inflation is killing people’s options to what they can watch. Further they do not want to listen and watch stupid drivel. These Hollywood types better learn fast what fans want. Go Woke, Go Broke.
This year, after I’ve seen woke flop after woke flop hit theaters and streaming, I was hopeful Hollywood would change. Unfortunately, I also pay attention to new projects being announced, and it has recently become undeniable to me that none of these companies are changing course. Canceling failed woke shows really doesn’t mean much if they just replace them with new woke shows. Making non-woke content seems to be a line these companies won’t cross.
When you see each service come out with their own copy-cat of Yellowstone, Reacher, The Terminal List, Emily in Paris, and Virgin River, you let me know. But so far all the newly announced projects continue to be barely distinguishable copies of failed woke shows we’ve seen 6 versions of already this year. If there’s nothing non-woke in the pipeline, there seems to be little hope for the future.
I thought Wall Street would force these companies to change course, but instead they all seem to be running cover for them. Why else would so many articles pop up claiming streaming is inherently unprofitable and there’s nothing to be done? Why else would they cover for Netflix losing subscribers simultaneously in almost every global region they do business in as if there isn’t a simple explanation (BAD CONTENT)? Wall Street has effectively given them permission to not pursue profits. Sorry I’m just not optimistic at this point.