Liberal Message Movies Flopping … Is 'Elysium' Next?

What connects such seemingly disparate summer movies asThe Purge, The Lone Ranger and White House Down?

They all contain liberal themes, and they’ve suffered at the box office as a result. So says Kyle Smith at The New York Post.

What [the summer’s box office champs] all have in common is that they pretty much lack any hint of a political argument.

That won’t stop Hollywood from trying to sneak, or rather ram, PC messages into its movies, but for the most part the ones that try are doing badly, notably “White House Down,” “The Lone Ranger” and “The Purge.”

The Purge’s director admitted he based the darker elements of his story, a tale of a future America where the law is rescinded once a year for 12 hours, on both the Tea Party and the NRA. White House Down is an unabashed progressive fantasy, from its hits on conservatives to its deification of a liberal President (Jamie Foxx). The Lone Ranger repeated trashes “the white man” in its politically correct retelling of the masked gunslinger’s saga.

The Purge is actually an economic success story, enjoying a robust opening weekend compared to its tiny budget. Smith contends the film’s second and subsequent weeks featured a large attendance drop, meaning audiences initially drawn to its dystopian saga were repelled to discover a piece of cinematic agitprop.

So where does that leave Elysium, the Aug. sci-fi release starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster? The film pits the poor against the rich, weaving in both liberal class warfare rhetoric with attacks against those who don’t believe amnesty should be national policy.