Blowhard Box Office Blowback: ‘Hateful Eight,’ ‘Joy’ Underperform

There is a not-so unexpected disturbance in the box office force, and it has nothing to do with the public’s desire to go to the movies. Not only has “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” broken dozens of box office records this winter, the net-effect has not buried other titles under a tidal wave. The “Star Wars” tide is lifting all boats, except for Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” and Jennifer Lawrence’s “Joy.” Both are under-performing in a big way.

Quentin Tarantino’s previous film, “Django Unchained,” is a violent, R-rated Western released over Christmas. It would go on to earn $163 million in North America. After two weekends in wide release, “Django” sat at a healthy $106 million. However…

After two weekends in wide release, by Monday morning, “The Hateful Eight,” a violent, R-rated Western released over Christmas, will sit at a paltry $42 million — not even half of “Django’s” haul after the same period of time. Not to put too fine a point on it, but after two weekends in release in 2009, Tarantino’s “Inglorious Basterds” had racked up $73 million.

Gee, I wonder what flipped everything on its head?

Could it be that sucking up to Black Lives Matter by publicly lying about, smearing, and defaming America’s first responders in the form of law enforcement, is not the savvy marketing ploy the Bubble Dumb in Hollywood believed it might be?

Hey, and maybe, and I’m just throwing this out there, it’s not such a good idea to have your star out there trashing American Veterans?

What about trashing American Christians and exposing yourself as a spoiled, nasty, entitled Diva as opposed to the relatable every-girl that made you a star? Let’s see how that worked out for anti-Christian bigot Jennifer Lawrence.

In its third weekend of wide release, “Joy”  (which is a terrific movie), after a $4.7 million take this weekend, will sit at just $47 million.

In 2013, “American Hustle,” which was also released in December, sat at a robust $88 million after three weeks in wide release. It would eventually go on to earn $150 million. Because of its release structure, there is no way to compare weekends with “Silver Linings Playbook,” which eventually grossed $132 million, but it is safe to say “Joy” probably won’t gross half as much.

Same stars (Lawrence, Robert DeNiro, Bradley Cooper).

Same director (David O. Russell).

Same release weekend.

Hollywood needs to understand that the Legacy Media can no longer protect its product from the assholery of it stars. New Media is now a dominant force in the American conversation, and Old Media can no longer bottleneck the truth in order to serve its corporate, left-wing masters.

In the old days, like ten years ago, a celebrity could pull off a two-fer: Suck up to the Motion Picture Academy by trashing Middle America while counting on the obedient mainstream media to ensure their bigoted and boorish behavior did not explode into a box office backlash.

If Mr. Whipple or Madge trashed 50% of the customers, you can be sure a lot less toilet paper  and dishwashing soap would have been sold.

In a world of streaming, video games, and Blu-ray collections, why does Hollywood believe its product is so special they can still afford to have their Mr. Whipples insult and denigrate more than half of their customers?

Welcome to the Free Market, Tinseltown, where tolerance and inclusion are virtues.

 

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC