The blow-out box office success of the Disney Grooming Syndicate’s Inside Out 2 has exposed the sycophant entertainment media as shameless and pathetic propagandists.
My refrain has been the same through every box office slump over the last three decades: Product, product, product. That doesn’t make me a genius. It merely proves I’m not looking to enjoy insider status and free swag from the fascist studios that run Hollywood.
The movie business has been around for more than one hundred years. Throughout the twentieth century, it managed to survive the Great Depression, two world wars, two pandemics, strikes, generational upheaval, and the creation of radio, home video, cable TV, the Internet, and broadcast TV.
Nevertheless, the same so-called professionals who are paid to cover the movie business have been gaslighting the public (and themselves) for years by blaming the recent collapse of the box office on everything but the product.
It’s the pandemic!
No, the movie business already survived a couple of those.
It’s the strikes!
No, the movie business already survived a couple of those.
It’s streaming!
No, any fool knows that if the movie business can survive radio, TV, VCR, and DVD, it can survive Netflix.
Here they are blaming…sexism:
In terms of how such hate campaigns can manifest, one part is rallying their supporters to dislike and review bomb the projects they wish to attack in an effort to prove their minority is actually in the majority…
It’s possible these campaigns employ bots to help rack up the numbers of dislikes and negative reviews, or that some folks are doing it to be trolls. But, there are very real issues of racism and misogyny that pervade society. As such, it’s incredibly likely there is a large number of people who take issue with The Marvels trailer simply because it’s led by a white woman, a Black woman and a young Pakistani-Canadian woman.
And yet, Inside Out 2 is a female-led movie that just broke box office records. Oh, and let’s not forget Barbie.
Here they are blaming 2023’s strikes for — lol — taking us out of the moviegoing habit: “Despite more movies in the marketplace, we’re still feeling the aftermath of the strikes. How is that? Many aren’t in the habit of moviegoing yet[.]”
And yet, Inside Out 2 broke box office records just a few weeks after Deadline claimed the strikes killed our moviegoing habit. Oh, and the week before that, Bad Boys: Ride or Die overperformed with a $52 million opening. But-but-but our moviegoing habit!
Here they are blaming a lack of product:
A downtick in box office grosses was expected this year due to production delays caused by the Hollywood double strike last year and a lack of major blockbusters on the level of recent hits like “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Barbie.” Exhibition sources have told TheWrap that 2025 is seen as a potential rebound year with higher profile tentpoles and a greater quantity of theatrical titles on the slate.
And yet, there is no lack of product:
The lackluster [box office] start comes despite audiences having more theater options than they have had in years. This year through Feb. 18, there have been 11 wide-release movies, or those showing in at least 2,000 locations nationwide. There were nine wide-release titles through the same time frame last year.
What is lacking is a product people find appealing and want to see, like Inside Out 2.
And here’s my favorite and most frequent excuse: blaming Disney+ for Disney’s serial box office flops:
The emergence of their streaming service, Disney+, has made audiences question whether it’s worth paying to see Disney’s animated films in theaters.
Disney’s strategy of sending certain titles, including Turning Red, to Disney+ has led to diminishing box office returns, tarnishing the brand and making it less urgent for moviegoers to see their films on the big screen.
And yet, despite the existence of Disney+, Disney’s Inside Out 2 just broke box office records and opened better than every pre-Disney+ Pixar movie except The Incredibles 2.
If there is one constant at the box office over the last few years, it is the following…
Woke movies underperform or outright flop at a 100 percent rate (Barbie is the single exception), while non-woke movies, movies made for Normal People, like Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Inside Out 2, Super Mario Bros., Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, Top Gun: Maverick, and Oppenheimer, rake in the dough.
The movies have already survived TV, strikes, cultural upheavals, wars, pandemics, depressions, and Ben Affleck…What the movies cannot survive are these dull, pedantic, sexless, anti-human nature propaganda offerings.
No one wants to be lectured. No one wants to be told we should be judged on our skin color and sex. No one wants to watch gay sex. No one wants a transvestite portrayed as normal. No one likes smug characters, girlbosses, or watching their heroes emasculated.
But guess what we do want?
We still want to go to the movies. The fact that we are not going is not our fault or streaming’s fault or the pandemic’s fault or the strike’s fault…It’s the killjoy Woke Gestapo’s fault. And until the sycophant entertainment media dares to speak that truth, nothing will change, the movie business will die, and that’s okay with me — I have my Blu-ray collection.
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.
