The start of the COVID pandemic is about four years in the rearview and still being blamed for Hollywood losing 20 percent of moviegoers.
“One out of every five moviegoers has vanished since the pandemic, according to research compiled by one Hollywood studio,” reports the far-left Hollywood Reporter. “Whether they’ll ever return to see a film on the big screen is anyone’s guess — and, if they do, when.”
Compared to the last pre-pandemic year of 2019, the domestic box office is down 21 percent.
The lengthy article is full of facts and figures. It also accidentally answers the question it asks about why this is happening and how to fix it, but it never acknowledges the answer.
The answer is right here: Spider-Man: No Way Home, Barbie, Oppenheimer, John Wick 4, Top Gun: Maverick, and Sound of Freedom. Those titles were monster hits during and after the pandemic for one very simple reason: people wanted to see them.
The idea that the reasons behind this drop in moviegoing ranks is a whodunnit is absurd. The titles above prove that people will still turn out in droves if they find something appealing. So, how can anyone still blame the pandemic for the drop in moviegoing? If the pandemic was to blame, nothing could succeed in theaters.
Plus, Taylor Swift’s big 2023 concert tour proves the moviegoing demo isn’t afraid to congregate or come out of their homes. She’s packing them in up to the rafters.
The article also suggests moviegoers are tired of aging franchises. How can that be true when the fifth biggest global blockbuster of 2023 was the tenth chapter in the 24-year-old Fast & Furious franchise?
The article suggests moviegoers are tired of superheroes. How can that be true when Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 was 2023’s fourth biggest global blockbuster?
Audiences worn out by franchises and superhero movies would not go to see any aging franchise or superhero movie. Fast X and Guardians became hits because people wanted to see them. But why Fast X and Guardians 3, and not Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny? Another simple answer… Dial of Destiny emasculated and shamed its hero with an unappealing girl sidekick, while Fast X and Guardians 3 remained true to their characters and what made them iconic.
The “existential” truth, and we all know it, is this: Ever since Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016, Hollywood has sought to punish, insult, and alienate Trump voters (half the country) by way of cinematic tantrums that scold and dehumanize us due to our gender, faith, political beliefs, and overall normalcy.
Hollywood’s insane crusade against decent people (and decency) hit warp speed after the murder of George Floyd with a legion of movies where no one behaves or interacts normally. In order to push its social and political agenda, everyone’s a simple-minded stand-in for us evil normal people or the oh-so noble BIPOCLGBTQTARDs. Disney is now “queering” our children. Indiana Jones is criticized as a colonialist. Luke Skywalker is a child murderer. Buzz Lightyear is a GLAAD crusader. Thor learns to wear an apron.
On top of that, movie after movie tells us sexual deviancy, mental illness, and narcissism are virtues. Worst of all, our heroes, the very characters that made these franchises golden geese for decades, are deconstructed, portrayed as bigots, and replaced with girls and racial minorities for no good reason other than tokenism. Sometimes, as the Equalizer franchise proved, there is a good reason — Denzel Washington is awesome. Mostly, though, the tokenism is so ham-handed and off-putting that the bad taste in our mouths tells us not to bother purchasing a ticket.
There’s no mystery here: movies suck.
