Archive for 2022
October 3, 2022
“REAL VIRTUE DOESN’T VIRTUE SIGNAL:”
The TikToking nurses did great damage to the healthcare industry’s reputation in 2020:
AT DAVIDSON COLLEGE: “FAILING INTRODUCTORY ECONOMICS.” Though given that not even Western governments can grasp supply and demand anymore, maybe the students are just following the trend.
UKRAINE WAR: Russia’s Position Is Crumbling. “How bad is the situation, really? Retreating Russian forces in Kherson took to social media — in this case, the Telegram app popular with Russian milbloggers — to beg for airstrikes.”
REAL ESTATE OPPORTUNITY: Pacific Ocean set to make way for world’s next supercontinent.
NO, IT ISN’T: Hollywood’s Latest Box Office Bomb Is Your Fault, According to Billy Eichner.
[“Bros”] is a Billy Eichner comedy that was loudly and proudly touted as the first gay rom-com from a major studio. Universal gave this a significant push, beginning with a wide release of showings in 3,350 theaters. Advertising began in the early summer, and Eichner was a fixture on the talk show circuit. Online, television, and streaming outlets all were targets for commercial time, as the studio bet big on this title. The movie had a shooting budget of around $20 million, but estimates have Universal backing it with up to an additional $40 million for promotions.
All signs pointed to a favorable result. Advance word has been hot, and the critics have given it a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 91 percent positive. Exit scores from audiences have been strong, with an “A” grade. Yet, all of that advanced push generated no momentum. Pre-release estimates had the movie generating a box office return of between $12-$20 million. Instead, “Bros” debuted in 4th position this weekend, drawing a meager $4.8 million.
There’s a reason films with niche appeal get smaller budgets: They generate smaller returns than movies with mass appeal. Hollywood spent big bucks on a niche film, then blamed mass audiences for not showing up.
It’s enough to make you wonder if Hollywood isn’t happy to lose a bit of money on pictures like Bros, as an opportunity for moral preening at the flyover rubes who won’t buy tickets.
ACROSS IDEOLOGICAL LINES, two David Stroms find things they can agree on.
THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Kamala Shows She Doesn’t Understand Founding Docs. Makes Racist Statement About Hurricane Ian.
WHY DOES HOLLYWOOD KEEP INSULTING THEIR POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS? Leftist Billy Eichner lashes out at straight people after his LGBTQ movie Bros flops, blames homophobia for abysmal box office opening.
Despite massive promotion from legacy media and overwhelmingly glowing reviews from critics, “Bros” flopped. Eichner’s LGBTQ movie debuted to an abysmal $4.8 million at the box office despite playing in 3,350 theaters nationwide.
The Hollywood Reporter said the movie had done “little business in much of middle America and the south.”
Previously, Eichner has openly and vitriolically voiced his utter disdain for Christians, Republicans, and former President Donald Trump on Twitter.
Eichner’s movie that he wrote and starred in had a production budget of $22 million.
After the dismal box office numbers for “Bros” was released on Sunday night, Eichner lashed out at straight people and insinuated that anyone who didn’t want to see his LGBTQ movie was “homophobic.”
“Even with glowing reviews, great Rotten Tomatoes scores, an A CinemaScore etc, straight people, especially in certain parts of the country, just didn’t show up for Bros,” Eichner wrote on Twitter. “And that’s disappointing but it is what it is.”
The trailer for Bros ran before Moonage Daydream, when I saw it in the theater in mid-September in Fort Worth, and it looked absolutely dreadful. As John Nolte writes, compare Bros to the 1996 hit comedy The Birdcage, which had an all-star cast, a legendary director (Mike Nichols) and a known story (La Cage aux Folles had played on the American stage for years): Woke Bros Delivers Another Weekend Box Office Bust.
The woketards at TheWrap assured us Bros, an R-rated, homosexual romantic comedy released in 3,350 theaters, would — and I quote — “Kick Off Box Office Revival.”
Why would anyone think that?
I’ll confess I didn’t expect Bros to die-die-die with a, lol, $4.8 million opening, but…
How bubbled do you have to be to predict a gay movie filled with gay sex and gay talking points disguised as dialogue would succeed at the box office?
The American people have no problem with gay-themed comedies. Twenty-seven years ago, The Birdcage (1996) was a huge hit that drew $124 million domestic. In today’s dollars, that’s almost a quarter of a billion — with “B” — dollars domestic.
Can you imagine any comedy making $250 million domestic these days? Comedies suck today.
So why did the public flock to The Birdcage and avoid Bros like the plague?
Because The Birdcage offered actual stars — Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane, Hank Azaria, and Dianne Wiest … It didn’t offer gay sex, which makes 98 percent of the public uncomfortable. (Raise your hand if you go to the movies to feel uncomfortable!) … And it wasn’t marketed as a comedy-slash-lecture, which Bros was.
Gay sex makes heterosexuals uncomfortable. And that’s not bigotry. In the immortal words of Lady Gaga, we were born this way.
As I have said over and over, Hollywood should make movies for everyone, and that includes homosexuals. But it is pure madness to position a gay romantic comedy loaded with gay sex (including a foursome) like you would something starring Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant.
How bad was Bros? Homophobia? Math Proves 95% of Gays Avoided Billy Eichner’s Bros. “Had just 20 percent of the gay population showed up, Bros would right now be considered a hit. So why is Eichner raging against guys like me, the Red States, and homophobes when he can’t even attract five percent of the gay population to show up for his stupid movie? I’ll tell you why: he’s an ignorant, bitter bigot who made a movie no one wants to see, not even gay people.”
The film’s IMDB Trivia page notes:
Co-writer and star Billy Eichner has expressed that he does not want conservatives, especially those that voted for the 45th President of the United States and their associates, to see the film, even conservatives who identify as being part as the LGBTQ+ community as he views them as traitors.
Mission accomplished, champ.
MEGAN FOX: Watch Me Yell at Republicans Who Won’t Stand Up for Their Voters. “I know many of you want to scream at Republicans who seem uninterested in doing their jobs. I got the rare opportunity to do it for you on television this week. OANN called and had me on Tipping Point with Kara McKinney to discuss the ongoing madness in the state of Oklahoma.”
I THINK THIS IS SCHEDULED FOR PRE-ELECTION 2024: Another monkey virus could be poised for spillover to humans.
HARRIS CAN’T ANSWER BECAUSE WHAT SHE SAID IS OUTRAGEOUS TO MOST AMERICANS AND ILLEGAL, TOO: VP Kamala Harris dodges question asking about dispersing Hurricane Ian relief based on ‘equity.’
DEAL OF THE DAY: Rockport Margin Men’s Oxford Shoes. #CommissionEarned
“NY JUDGE RULES POLYGAMY ON SAME LEVEL AS COUPLE RELATIONSHIPS.” I actually thought polygamy would be the next big thing after Obergefell, rather than the explosion of trans issues. Polygamy is an ancient practice, and I have no idea how, under current law, one can sustainably justify (for example) telling a devout Jordanian Muslim that in this country, two men can get married, but that three of the four wives he married in Jordan simply don’t count.
For an even more fun thought experiment, imagine trying to explain the moral case for that distinction to one of his wives, whose marriage our laws have totally erased. Enjoy!
GEORGE ORWELL, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Gov. Newsom to Lower Gas Prices With Gas Tax Hikes. “Tax hikes to lower gas prices? Bring them on.”
WELL, IT WAS ILLEGAL AND RACIST: Google quietly backtracks university fellowship’s racial quota. “Google recently came under fire for reportedly limiting the number of White and Asian students that universities could nominate for its Ph.D. Fellowship program. After receiving pushback, however, Google quietly reversed the policy.”
FIGHT THE POWER: Judicial Watch Demands Providence (RI) Schools Cease and Desist “Retaliation and Harassment” Of Ramona Bessinger. “As previously mentioned, Providence (RI) whistleblower teacher Ramona Bessinger has been subjected to increasing attacks at Classical High School in Providence, including a protest against her today which Bessinger asserts was assisted by other teachers. This is the culmination of over a year of retaliation and harassment after Bessinger blew the whistle in July 2021.”
THE ROT AT THE FBI GOES MUCH DEEPER THAN STRZOK: Peter Strzok Destroyed in Draft FBI Letter Firing Him. “In short, your repeated selfishness has called into question the credibility of the entire FBI.”
BAN ALL AIR TRAVEL FOR HARVARD FACULTY AND STAFF: Harvard ‘climate crisis’ report demands ‘all-hands-on-deck approach.’ Especially senior administrators. They shouldn’t even have heat or air conditioning, so as to set a proper example.
TEMPER OF THE TIMES: This from Just the News this morning says a great deal about the times in which we live:
“The White House said Friday that Biden personally called Aviation Survival Technician Second Class Zach Loesch to thank him for his ‘heroic work’ saving lives during the deadly hurricane.
“Loesch told Breitbart News on Saturday that he will be kicked out of the Coast Guard within the next two months after his religious accommodation request and appeal to the COVID vaccine mandate was denied.”
GET WOKE, LOSE WARS: US Army Misses Recruiting Goal; Other Services Squeak by. “According to officials, the Marine Corps, which usually goes into each fiscal year with as much as 50% of its recruiting goal already locked in, has only a bit more than 30%. And the Air Force and the Navy will only have about 10% of their goals as they start the new fiscal year. The Air Force usually has about 25%. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details on the recruiting totals that have not yet been released.”
TAXPROF ROUNDUP: More On Judge Ho’s Proposed Boycott Of Yale Law School Grads For Judicial Clerkships.
What’s most notable about this bit of pushback is simply that it’s happening.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Biden’s Last Brain Cell May Be the Death of the Republic. “Because we know that he’s not going to mentally make it to 2024 and that there are no real upgrades among the Democrats were he to make an early exit.”
SELF-DELUSION ON THE LEFT, MARK JOSEPH STERN EDITION: The Supreme Court Is Blowing Up Law School, Too. Inside the growing furor among professors who have had enough.Stern writes that constitutional law professors are “giving up on the Supreme Court.” He writes:
The problem, it’s worth emphasizing, is not that the Supreme Court is issuing decisions with which left-leaning professors disagree. It’s that the court seems to be reaching many of these conclusions in defiance of centuries of standards, rejecting precedent and moderation in favor of aggressive, partisan-tinged motivated reasoning. Plenty of progressive professors have long viewed the court with skepticism, and many professors, right- and left-leaning, have criticized the reasoning behind certain opinions for decades. But it’s only in recent years—with the manipulation of the justice selection process combined with clear, results-oriented cynicism in decisions—that the problem has seemed so acute that they feel it affects their ability to teach constitutional law.
Actually, the fact that the Court is solidly conservative, and the constitutional law professoriate overwhelming liberal or further left, is exactly the problem. In the past, the left could count on the Court for sporadic big victories: same-sex marriage, affirmative action, abortion. Now they can’t, so they have turned against the Court. We all know that left-learning lawprofs would be dancing in the streets if SCOTUS were equally aggressive to the left. And indeed, while Stern portrays discontent with the Court as a question of professional standards rather than ideology, he does not manage to find a single right-leaning professor to quote in his article.
[Crossposted at Volokh]