New Hollywood is Going to be So Cool
The last few years have proven that film audiences want good movies, not to be preached to about politics or social causes… or do they? New players in the feature film game may be proving the opposite. Sound of Freedom (2023), City of Dreams (2024), Am I Racist? (2024) are the hot new products on the market with a different audience, a different message, and a different success rate. What’s the difference? A conservative worldview reflected in the media they consume. Just look at Fox News’ Gutfeld!—while not hosted by a comedian, it reigns supreme in the world of late-night talk shows. The Chosen is so popular it’s available in premium format at cinemas despite being a television show about a story we already know (Jesus’ life). It turns out conservatives will pay to hear that story again and again (with seatside service, please).
Another aspect of conservative film production is the approach to the box office. With the release of Sound of Freedom(2023), moviegoers were asked to purchase additional tickets for anyone unable to afford to see the film about such an important issue, child trafficking, linking conservative values with profitability (and mimicking the donation plate). The ingenious business model of asking ticket buyers to “pay it forward” helps box office receipts in the same manner as repeat viewings, boosting profits for executive producers without necessarily benefiting theaters. There’s no tracking system to guarantee that additional ticket purchases go to a conservative cinema-goer in need, but the profits increase nonetheless, encouraging executive producers to keep funding conservative storytelling on the big screen.
Welcome to New Hollywood.
I first encountered the concept of New Hollywood when I read that The Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro and company, would be investing in a feature film starring the sister of one of More Recent Hollywood’s “5 Actresses”: Margaret Qualley. (It seems that More Recent Hollywood has only about five famous actresses at any given time, with Qualley currently in the rotation of awards chatter films and limited series.) Her sister, musician Rainey Qualley, made a thriller also starring conservative bad boy Vincent Gallo, executive produced by Ben Shapiro. It made me wonder if the stigma of association with the conservative cause was really so bad if it came with a paycheck and the start of a film career. The film includes conservative messaging on protecting the family while upholding an important cinematic tenet: cast a really hot girl. Though I don’t have details on the budget, it was released to theaters in Russia and on digital media and must have done well enough to encourage The Daily Wire to invest in its first fully theatrical release, Am I Racist? this summer.
Billed as a “documentary,” Am I Racist? is much more of a mockumentary, designed to mock the world of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion—a little while after nobody cared to skewer it anymore. But it was a profitable film in any case ($12.3 million). The doc also reinforces a conservative value that audiences the world over have always clamored for: “tell us what we want to hear!” Yesterday’s election results underscore the point that, after years of being told what to think and feel about social causes, film audiences have started rewarding filmmakers for delivering different messaging.
Yesterday’s results also coincide with the shift towards conservative values in film. This shift is not a backward step to promoting marriage before children, abstinence education, or Bush-era conservative values, but a new brand of conservatism that meets audiences where they already are. Conservative values have never solely been about strict moral codes and specific social issues but also about helping others in need, supporting families, and believing in truths that have held long before the start of the social media era. (Election news cycles may suggest otherwise, but issues like teen pregnancy, interracial identity, and fatherlessness concern conservatives too.) More Recent Hollywood awards films every year, whether they are good or not, because awards organizations need TV advertising revenue to stay afloat. New Hollywood, by contrast, has yet to establish itself with a breakout achievement in the art of cinema. However, I think the next few years of franchise fatigue will make way for a breakthrough film that can lure the four-quadrant audience of yore to theaters and entertain the masses in the way stadium seating and plush rockers were designed to accommodate.
Make movies and make money? Yes, it’s possible. Give the people what they want! Just wait until New Hollywood figures out how to make it cool.
