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Critic: Political Correctness Topples Movies

July 15, 2013 by Robert Marich Leave a Comment

With a “Tea Party-like cabal” as the bad guys in “White House Down,” audiences didn’t embrace the thriller.

While Hollywood frets that an unprecedented number of big budget films have flopped this year, an opinion article in the New York Post by Kyle Smith purports to answer why: two of the big disappointments so far injected Hollywood’s “political correctness.”

The big-budget flops are Walt Disney Studios’ “The Lone Ranger” ($250 million production cost) and Sony Pictures’ “White House Down” ($150 million production). Pundits suggest “Lone Ranger’s” global marketing cost added another $175 million to Disney’s investment, and “White House Down” probably less, perhaps around $100 million globally.

“The summer’s big winners at the box office are mostly mindless spectacle: ‘Iron Man 3’, ‘Fast 6’, ‘Man of Steel,’ plus cute family fare like ‘Monsters University’ and ‘Despicable Me 2’ and the buddy comedy ‘The Heat,’ ” Smith writes in the New York Post. “What they all have in common is that they pretty much lack any hint of a political argument.”

“The Heat” — which is a moderately-budgeted drama — is a sci-fi horror film that opened strong but faded fast, which Smith attributes to poor word-of-mouth about its overt leftist politics.

I saw “White House Down,” which I feel suffered from heavy-handed politics. In the movie, conservative Republicans join with military equipment contractors in a dastardly plot to overthrow the President, who is an unmistakable representation of President Obama. This strand of the movie plays laughably.

In a typical summer, one big budget film will flop—last year it was Universal Pictures’ “Battleship.” Two flops in one summer (our count so far!) is rare. This summer has a third disappointment in “After Earth,” which was a $130 million production that flopped for Sony Pictures.

And all eyes are on a possible another conspicuous disappointment this year. For the July 12-16 weekend, the $185 million production of “Pacific Rim”—the Warner Bros./Legendary sci-fi yarn—placed only third for its premiere weekend with a moderate box office total. Less-expensive family films placed higher.

Related content:

  • “NY Post”: Groan Ranger

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