Hollywood is on pace to enjoy a record year at the box office. With $10.7 billion banked domestically, and 10 days remaining, this year is already +3.4% ahead of last and a full +9% ahead of 2014. And “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” will help the industry close on a high note. Yes, the film biz still has problems. Attendance is stagnant, Disney is gobbling up a disproportionate amount of overall revenue (it owns Star Wars, Pixar, Marvel)… The trend lines, though, are headed in the right direction. And the strikingly apolitical “Rogue One” explains a lot.
As my colleague Harry Khachatrian pointed out, despite the rumors and public post-Trump meltdown of many of its key creators, “Rogue One” is much more conservative than liberal. 1) There is nothing partisan anywhere in the story. 2) The themes are universal ones of self-sacrifice, fighting for a cause bigger than yourself, individual freedom, and, yes, a colorblind society.
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