Hollywood’s new Blacklist has a profound effect on the stories we watch.
Actors keep their conservative views private for fear of professional backlash. Screenwriters, in turn, dare not pitch right-leaning scripts for similar reasons. Author Andrew Klavan shared what happened when he did something similar in “Virtue Bombs: How Hollywood Got Woke and Lost Its Soul.”
And, when a rare, conservative project squeaks through, it faces enormous roadblocks. Just ask the team behind 2019’s pro-life drama “Unplanned.”
The times are a-changing.
Over the weekend, three right-leaning titles bullied their way into the box office charts. “Am I Racist?” came in fourth with $4.75 million. The Daily Wire original documentary finds Matt Walsh going undercover to expose DEI radicals.
The fifth most popular film? “Reagan,” the Dennis Quaid feature recalling the consequential life and times of the nation’s 40th president. The film now has earned $23 million in three weeks, an impressive number given it lacks the screen count many mainstream movies receive.
One example?
The weekend’s big new release, “Speak No Evil,” was shown on nearly a thousand more screens nationwide than “Reagan.”
Coming in at number 10? “God’s Not Dead: In God We Trust.” The fifth film in the unabashedly faith-based series stars Samaire Armstrong, Scott Baio, Dean Cain and David A.R. White. It brought in $1.7 million in 1,339 screens.
All three films originated from outside the Hollywood ecosystem. “Am I Racist?” is the first Daily Wire feature to sneak past its paywall, and it comes courtesy of the new distribution company SDG Releasing.
The “God’s Not Dead” saga began in 2014 with a bang, earning $64 million from a tiny budget. The fifth film in the saga reached theaters courtesy of Fathom Events. The distribution company remains open to faith-friendly fare.
“Reagan” also required innovation on the distribution front. Showbiz Direct, a new company, brought it to theaters nationwide.
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Film critics avoided both “Am I Racist?” and “In God We Trust.” They rallied to slam “Reagan,” with the far-Left Daily Beast dubbing it the year’s worst film. Audiences tuned out the brickbats. The film retains its 98 percent “fresh” rating from paying audiences. The same holds for “Am I Racist,” which has a 99 percent “fresh” score from general audiences.
Conservatives won’t have long to wait for another title aimed at their worldview. Conservative provocateur Dinesh D’Souza serves up election-ready fare with “Vindicating Trump” Sept. 27.
This isn’t happening by accident.
Conservatives understand parallel economies are a critical way to reach the public in 2024. That’s especially true given the new Hollywood Blacklist.
The entertainment industry wants no part of GOP-friendly content. It’s why no major platform challenged liberal late-night TV with a conservative alternative. It took Fox News to shake up the landscape via “Gutfeld!” The show is a steady ratings winner against its progressive competitors.
Entertainment executives ignore roughly half the country with little regret.
They’re leaving money on the table. Upstart companies are only too happy to scoop some of it up.
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