It’s happening before our very eyes.
With the rampant sexual assault scandals pervading Hollywood right now, it’s no surprise that they’ve lost any voice in trying to be a moral authority on anything.
And here’s just the latest example that Americans are sick of the industry.
2017 has been a terrible year for box-office numbers.
One could make the argument that the growing favoritism towards streaming platforms has kept people at home.
But it’s not just that.
Movies are tanking at rates we’ve never seen before, and it’s not because of poor content – although that’s another reason – but everyone is tired of Hollywood’s perpetuation of “moral” values.
People are thankfully seeing right through that nowadays, and nowhere is that more clear than in Justice League.
Justice League’s box-office failure over the weekend is not because of an over-saturation of superhero movies, it’s because of Ben Affleck, Joss Whedon and Brett Ratner’s involvement.
Breitbart reports:
“It was bad enough that the sycophantic Hollywood media was pretending that a $110 million opening weekend for Justice League would have been anywhere near acceptable.
Unfortunately for all concerned, the cold reality of the Harveywood scandal, combined with the loss of faith in DC to tell a worthwhile story, delivered even worse news — a horrific opening of just $93 million.
No one will say this, but just like the Harveywoood taint on Matt Damon and George Clooney helped to doom Suburbicon, so too did it damage Justice League.
Like his pals Damon and Clooney, the DC Universe’s Batman, Ben Affleck, got his big break, his start, thanks to Harvey Weinstein, and did so during Harvey’s halcyon days at Miramax.
You cannot think of Ben without thinking of Harvey, and to make matters worse, last month, Affleck himself was accused of groping numerous women. So far he has only acknowledged and apologized to one, while at the same time strenuously denying he knew anything about his mentor’s alleged predations.
The only problem with that claim of ignorance is that it is difficult to believe when one of Weinstein’s alleged rape victims, Rose McGowan, claims that Affleck is lying, that she told him of the incident right after it allegedly occurred.
Then there is Mr. Woke Feminist Joss Whedon, who stepped in for Zack Snyder to complete some re-shoots after the Justice League director left to deal with a family crisis.
Whedon has spent years preening on social media about what a super guy he is when it comes to women — well, except for his wife, who he serially betrayed with “needy young women” on a well-worn casting couch. Whedon’s rape jokes, his misogynist attacks on women who wanted no part of his Chauvinist Thought Plantation, his mockery of female cancer survivors.
If that is not baggage enough, I give you RatPac, one of the primary production companies behind Justice League, a company named after and founded by Brett Ratner, who is currently facing multiple accusations of straight-up sexual assault.
The reason the Hollywood trades refuse to acknowledge the fact that these scandals are hurting the box office is because these scandals are everywhere in Hollywood, which makes that kind of admission too much to bear.
So just how bad is this $93 million opening? We will start by comparing some apples to some other apples.
To begin with, Justice League is supposed to be DC’s Avengers movie, the one moviegoers are supposed to be breathlessly anticipating, the payoff where the superheroes and the universe finally all come together.
With that and Justice League’s $93 million opening in mind, Marvel’s Avengers opened to $207 million. The second Avengers movie, Age of Ultron, opened to $193 million. The most recent Thor chapter, Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok, opened to $122 million.
Worse still, Justice League’s opening is the lowest of the entire DC franchise: Suicide Squad ($133 million), Wonder Woman ($103 million), Man of Steel ($116 million), Batman v. Superman ($166 million).
From a dollars and cents point of view, the reported budget for Justice League is $300 million. The Avengers cost just $220 million.
The changing of the guard is happening right now, and Affleck is probably next to go.