Rachel Zegler stars as 'Maria' in the 2021 remake of 'West Side Story' (Trailer screenshot)
In what is being called a "shameful" opening and a box-office "catastrophe," the collapse of Steven Spielberg's "West Side Story" is being blamed on the director's desire to go "woke," making a politically correct change to the original version.
The weekend tally for the remake of the 1961 classic was an astonishingly low $10.5 million, with a worldwide gross of $14.9 million. The movie actually cost $100 million to produce, and some estimate the promotional budget at another $100 million.
John Nolte of Breitbart News is among the most vocal about the film's tanking, writing: "In interview after interview, director Steven Spielberg premised his rationale for remaking 'West Side Story' on 'correcting' it, which is simply the most woketard thing I've ever witnessed.
"Here you have a classic piece of Americana, a beloved property, an iconic chunk of our shared culture that not only won ten Oscars, including Best Picture but is also still beloved; and like some superior, smug jerk straight out of Orwell's 1984, Spielberg decides he needs to correct something that, by any moral measure, does not need correcting.
"Even what the fascist woketards see as the original movie's greatest sin – casting Natalie Wood as Maria – is nothing less than a crybaby lament. There was nothing at all immoral about that casting choice. On the contrary, Natalie Wood's portrayal was perfectly respectful.
"The result? To the surprise of no one who understands human nature, Spielberg's 'correction,' which cost $100 million to produce and at least as much to promote, is a box office catastrophe."
Nolte says "serial liars" in media are making all kinds of phony excuses for the historic flop, but "the truth is that woke is box office poison. Why is woke box office poison? Because art fails when it lies and woke is not only a lie; it is a violation of human nature."
He continued:
Woke is a lie, and when art lies, it fails. In order to succeed, art must, in some way, speak to a larger truth; even if it's a truth as generalized as our human desire for revenge, truth matters. Once you go woke, once you violate human nature (especially with biology and sexuality), you've created propaganda, which is as disposable and forgettable and boring as a used tissue.
Woke is so destructive, entire IPs are getting wiped out at the box office. Full-fledged franchises are now dead ... Woke has destroyed one golden goose after another ...
"Star Wars," "Charlie's Angels," "Men in Black," "X-Men," "Shaft," "Terminator," "Suicide Squad," "Birds of Prey" ... Do you want more proof? Look at how Ghostbusters rescued itself. After imploding with that dreadful, feminist 2016 entry, this year's "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" did a complete 180 – it is stridently anti-woke, a movie for everyone, and now "Ghostbusters" is once again a viable franchise.
After the woke "Eternals" flopped (who wants to watch two guys kiss?), even the Marvel Cinematic Universe finds itself on shaky ground.
How many of these high-profile woketard movies have to shock the box office with their failure – "In the Heights," "The Last Duel," "Many Saints of Newark," "Vice," "A Wrinkle in Time," "Detroit," etc. – before Hollywood wakes up?
Well, Hollywood will never wake up. The entertainment business is no longer about pleasing audiences. Instead, it's all about pleasing China, the left-wing bubble, Twitter, and fascist racial activists.
Roger Friedman at Showbiz411 said: "Disney's marketing geniuses had better come up with a plan to save 'WSS' instantly."
A scene from the 2021 version of 'West Side Story' (Trailer screenshot)
He says the new film "should have been a big family event, with discounts and encouragements. For one thing, this isn't 'Star Wars' or even 'Fast and Furious.' It's a musical. Without stars. And despite having young actors, the material is from 60 years ago. It's music by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, two people no one under 40 have heard of. It's not Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande.
"What is going on here? How could Disney, the family studio, have so misunderstood the mission? And what will they do about it, quickly? Because they're now facing a slew of stories on Monday morning that won't be very positive."
Follow Joe on Twitter @JoeKovacsNews
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