Why is No One Going to the Movies?

Of course, Jerry Seinfeld is right.

“Film doesn’t occupy the pinnacle in the social, cultural hierarchy that it did for most of our lives. When a movie came out, if it was good, we all went to see it. We all discussed it. We quoted lines and scenes we liked. Now we’re walking through a fire hose of water, just trying to see.” - Jerry Seinfeld

Most people outside the bubble of the Left already know why movies are bombing. Not only has Hollywood alienated them in almost every way imaginable, from the “woke” content to their hatred of Trump, but the stories just aren’t that good anymore. TikTok and YouTube are far more entertaining because they rely on algorithms to give users what they want and the free market. What goes viral is what’s popular—end of story.

20 years ago today Gladiator opened to the public and I began my website writing about the Oscar race. That was the last time, up until Oppenheimer, that a Best Picture winner got anywhere near the top of the box office. It wasn’t number 1 but it was close enough at number 3. Oppenheimer was number 5.

The reason for this is complicated. But the story goes something like this. Right around 2003, with the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchise movies, Big Hollywood cracked the code on how to make lots and lots of money not just here but internationally.

For the next twenty years, there would be two Hollywoods. One that pushed out franchise movies—Marvel, Star Wars, animated films—mostly aimed at one reliable demographic: 13-year-old boys. Movies catered to that base, and they were rewarded handsomely for it—all over the world. Why? Because human beings, for whatever reason, respond to a central male protagonist. Women like men, and men like men.

The numbers were staggering for Hollywood up until 2020, when it the box office collapsed.

They modeled the movies after fast food: fewer choices, familiar brands, and expectations met. But in the Obama era, many who cover movies (like me), started to look at things differently, from the point of view of being “good people” rather than entertaining audiences. That meant things had to be equal - why was every movie about “one special boy,” and why was everything so white?

That’s like asking why McDonald’s french fries are unhealthy for society or the planet. McDonald’s isn’t stupid enough to try to make its fries healthier or its Big Macs less fattening just for the betterment of society. Instead, it offers salads as a healthy option (probably no one eats when they go to McDonald’s).

Hollywood did just that with the films that hit the independent circuit and were aimed at the Oscar race. There was a “specialty market” for the sophisticated tastes of the elites. We didn’t realize that was happening because we were coming out of the Bush era and saw ourselves as the New Puritans, building a new world in the Obama presidency.

This played in the first year of Obama’s first term, 2009 when The Hurt Locker beat Avatar. Sure, they liked it better, but it won because Kathryn Bigelow was about to make history as the first woman to win the top prize, just as Obama was the first Black man to win the presidency. We were chasing the high of “firsts” until last year when the first blockbuster written, directed by, and starring a white man won Best Picture.

After Trump won, and mass hysteria overtook the Oscars, where La La Land was “racist,” Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was “racist,” and Green Book was racist, the Oscars and Hollywood decided that big changes had to be made. They invited thousands of voters of color, most of them international. Now, the Oscar membership was close to 10,000.

Trump’s win didn’t just dramatically transform the Oscars as they scrambled to be seen as Good Puritans in our new world; it hit every part of the industry. Trump’s win meant everyone had to pay, but especially males, especially white males. Now, it was time to take away their power by removing the male protagonist or white male protagonist from movies and either replacing them with women or adding a woman.

It went on and on as they tinkered with their utopian diorama, swapping out entertaining for “educational” to transform it into dogma, a new way for people to think. We all came out of 2016 thinking that America was broken and it was time to fix it.

They cut their audience in half when they took a side against Trump and MAGA. They reduced their reach even further when they “wokeified” their movies. When they married the Democratic Party, everything they did had to reflect the worldview of the Obama/Clinton/Biden coalition. There is no dividing line between the two. They are the same organism. If the Democrats are going down, so is Hollywood.

They rely on news from inside the bubble, where journalists and major news media outlets also reflect the worldview of the Democratic Party. The problem is that this country and this world are much bigger than that. They have a class of film critics who parrot the party line and never push back. They have journalists who are as out of touch with the rest of America as they are. Anyone who loudly dissents is purged.

Jerry Seinfeld did just that. He said movies are over, and comedy isn’t funny anymore because of the “far left” crazies. He wasn’t wrong, but film critics on Twitter almost instantly threw him under the bus.

When I want to read an honest take, I do not read film critics. Not anymore. Instead, I go to YouTube or TikTok to hear opinions that the hive mind hasn’t been cleansed for maximum purity. I can’t stand the collective fear of these people. Give me some truth.

The Fall Guy is the latest movie to bomb. No one has heard of it, no one wants to see it, and in a tough economy, why would they spend that much money on a movie they can see on streaming in a couple of weeks? Sounds logical enough. But the real problem is that Hollywood is that Hollywood is out of touch with the real world that surrounds the insular bubble. They can’t give the people what they want because they don’t know the people anymore.

Could the aristocracy before the French Revolution tell good stories for the people of France? No. Could they make movies that reflect their point of view? Not a chance because that puts them at risk. The Trump delusion has hurt Hollywood is so many ways, but the biggest has been the “us vs. them” dividing line.

Audiences have mostly lost interest in what Hollywood puts out because the storytelling doesn’t reflect what is actually going on. Instead, it must adhere to the “good behavior” of the Woketopia.

We all know what kinds of stories are out there that no one in Hollywood tell. Imagine making a movie about a man wrongly accused of sexual harassment, and it snowballs into an episode of mass hysteria at the company.

Imagine telling a story of a corrupt government that weaponizes the Justice System to take down a political opponent but telling it from the point of view of the Trump side.

Imagine making a parody of Hollywood called The Woke Movie. It would be hilarious. They’d never do it. They are married to the Democratic Party, which means they have to spout the same nonsensical virtue signaling that is turning everyone off.

A counterculture movement springing out of this moment is an easy call because we’ve reached that moment where Hollywood has run out of good stories to tell and must rely instead of brands and franchises.

Since they’ve alienated so many people, getting them back won’t be easy. The movies this summer will probably do decently at the box office, like the Mad Max sequel.

Kevin Costner’s western, Horizon, is exactly the kind of thing people will feel motivated to spend money to see ( think):

Todd Phillips’ sequel to Joker should do pretty well, considering he’s cast himself as an outsider as Costner has, so maybe it will draw a crowd.

These are what I would call must-see movies by directors who still have the juice to do good work and aren’t particularly political activists (they probably are but aren’t that obvious about it).

But overall, Holywood should divorce itself from the Democratic Party. They should open the gates to the castle and let the people back inside. They should get over their Trump Derangement Syndrome, which is destroying them. They should do these things, but they probably won’t. To quote one of the great movies from days gone by, “The ship is made of iron, and it will sink.”