Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon is dead on arrival after its second-weekend box office collapsed to just $9 million.

Apple Studios dropped a reported $200 million into this prestige flick and at least another $60 or $70 million to promote it. Thus far, after two weekends, it has grossed just $41 million domestic and $85 million worldwide.

The problem is the 60 percent drop between weekend one and weekend two. That tells you the all-important word of mouth is pretty awful.

The sycophants in the entertainment media will likely claim Flower Moon took a dive because it is soon expected to stream on Apple TV+. That’s pure BS. Less than ten percent of the American population subscribes to Apple TV+. Additionally, Flower Moon is being sold as an adult epic that must be seen in theaters with two big movie stars: Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.

The sycophants will also claim the 3.5-hour runtime hurt the film. Or the fact it’s an adult drama instead of a superhero movie.

Robert de Niro attends the “Killers Of The Flower Moon” photocall at the 76th annual Cannes film festival at Palais des Festivals on May 21, 2023 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Lionel Hahn/Getty)

Really?

Because just two months ago, Christopher Nolan’s three-hour adult drama Oppenheimer grossed $324 million domestic and $947 million worldwide.

Plus.

Flower Moon has a huge advantage over Oppenheimer: DiCaprio and De Niro — two big stars. What’s more, until now, DiCaprio has been box office gold. Oppenheimer starred Cillian Murphy, a respected actor but no box office draw.

So what happened?

The whole idea behind Flower Moon was to recreate the sensation of Dances with Wolves (1990), Schindler’s List (1993), American Sniper (2014), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Gladiator (2000), The Revenant (2015)… Create a must-see event drama, a prestige film headed for canonization and Oscar glory… The table was perfectly set… Rapturous reviews and long magazine profiles of Scorsese as though this were a summing up of his legendary career…

Leonardo Dicaprio poses during a photocall for the film “Killers of the Flower Moon” at the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 21, 2023. (PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/AFP via Getty Images)

The problem, though, is that the movie stinks of woke. Evil Americans murdering Noble Indians; it smells of 3.5 hours of a history lesson where we Americans are told to be ashamed of ourselves. Flower Moon is based on a true story and a best-selling book. But the book tells the story from the FBI’s point of view. These murders went a long way toward establishing the FBI. But…

In an obvious move to appease the Woke Gestapo in the Motion Picture Academy, Scorsese has gone out of his way to sell the idea that he chose to tell the story from the Osage Indian’s point of view. Me? I like that idea for two reasons: 1) I’ve never seen it before, and 2) I have no desire to see the evil FBI idealized. Nevertheless…

The whole thing gives off a whiff of a 3.5-hour scold, a 3.5-hour downer, 3.5 hours of a great director catering to the worst people in the world.

Woke will always equal box office death. Woke is dull. There’s no nuance, no thinking for yourself. We go to the movies to be intellectually and emotionally stimulated, entertained, and taken away. Woke does all our thinking for us, breaks the storytelling spell, and is sexless.

And let’s not forget that Robert De Niro has grown into a cranky old man who makes no secret about how much he hates half the country. So…

Why bother?

John Nolte’s debut novel Borrowed Time (Bombardier Books) is available today. You can read an exclusive excerpt here and a review of the novel here.