The news keeps getting worse for Hollywood, Inc.
The current Writers’ Strike shows no sign of ending and could last into the fall, if not the start of 2024. That’s on top of an imminent SAG-AFTRA strike, which will cause actors to take a knee as well.
Some of the summer’s can’t-miss movies missed by a country mile, including “The Flash” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” The streaming revolution’s price tag is proving too rich for even the biggest studios to stomach.
Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners just slashed 20 percent of its workforce. That’s on top of Disney giving pink slips to 7,000 employees following its dark descent into wokeism.
The king of the streaming platforms, Netflix, said goodbye to at least 450 employees last year.
Variety painted the oh-so-bleak picture for readers:
The entertainment industry in aggregate can’t afford to keep producing content at the pace of recent years, as evidenced by the astounding financial losses reported and cost-cutting campaigns underway at Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global and to a lesser degree Comcast.
Bidenomics is making all of the above so much worse. What’s an industry to do? Tighten their belts, for starters. Fire woke staffers deemed indispensable five minutes ago. Trash films before they even have a chance to fail. Memory-hole woke content that drew so few eyeballs there’s little hope of any return on investment.
Diversity may be our strength, but it doesn’t necessarily pay the bills in La La Land. It helps explain why four Hollywood diversity gurus just got the ax in a span of two weeks. That’s the kind of news cycle that might coax studios to reconsider their decisions and offer a full-throated apology.
Not this time.
It’s hardly the only example of studios swallowing hard and ignoring woke essentials. Paramount+ tried to revive the “Grease” brand with a prequel series for the streaming service. “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies” leaned heavily into woke dictates, from white supremacy to LGBTQ themes.
Did it matter that those issues weren’t publicly explored in the 1950s, the period in question? Apparently not, but so few people watched it that the platform did more than cancel it. Paramount brass wiped it off the platform, presumably for tax purposes.
Something similar happened to the woke “Willow” reboot. Disney+ similarly embraced LGBTQ themes into the ‘80s film, but audiences aggressively ignored the TV update. The Mouse House not only ended the show after just one season but removed it, “Pink Ladies” style, from its content lineup.
Disney+ also yanked “Crater,” an original film with plenty to say about class inequality.
Netflix and then-HBO Max jumped on the trend early, extinguishing presumably woke projects before they even reached the public. Netflix’s content deal with Meghan Markle led to “Pearl,” an animated series about a girl who finds inspiration from women leaders of yore.
Netflix canceled it before anyone had a chance to see it. The same held true for the king of woke’s first Netflix project, an animated version of “Anti-Racist Baby.” Ibram X. Kendi’s book adaptation also got nixed before production could be completed, as did his proposed anti-racism documentary.
The streaming giant may have accidentally set the anti-woke cost-cutting in motion. Netflix aired Dave Chappelle’s comedy special “The Closer” near the end of 2021, a routine including jokes deemed “transphobic” by elements of the Left.
Liberal activists howled, demanding Netflix pull the film while supporters protested at the company’s headquarters. The company could have buckled, delivered a woke-approved apology, and severed ties with the funnyman.
Instead, Netflix brass backed Chappelle, extended its ties with the comedian, and essentially, told activists to pound sand. Keeping a profitable star like Chappelle on the platform meant more than appeasing a micro-minority of critics.
HBO Max infamously shelved its “Batgirl” film project despite spending upwards of $90 million on it and nearly completing it. That superhero film also appeared to embrace woke storytelling tics according to early reports.
Woke storytelling was all the rage, but it never attracted a mass audience like “Top Gun: Maverick” or “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” Actors might spout woke platitudes to the press, but they rarely think about how it might impact the bottom line of their respective bosses.
Studio heads don’t have that luxury. They see the shocking numbers ricocheting around the industry, note how many woke projects fail to provide a return on investment, and see films with little to no agenda outperforming socially aware fare.
When Hollywood was seemingly flush with cash during the Trump era and before the streaming bills came due, it could afford to be as woke as possible. Show after show, movie after movie leaned into woke lectures, identity politics and other far-left trappings.
If the “Terminator” franchise went extinct over a little-seen woke sequel, so be it. Other films and shows would more than make up for those losses.
Now, the losses are coming from all over. And it could get worse before it gets better.
Woke is wonderful — on paper. Virtue signaling makes stars feel good without accomplishing much, if anything. It’s also an enormous drain on resources, something Hollywood can no longer afford.
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of HollywoodInToto.com. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at @HollywoodInToto.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.