7 Biggest Woke Box Office Busts of 2021: 'West Side Story,' 'Eternals,' and More

David NgDecember 27, 2021

“Everything woke turns to shit,” former President Donald Trump said this year. Nowhere is this more true than in Hollywood, where the public’s rejection of woke movies can be measured in the tens of millions of dollars that studios are losing at the box office.

No matter how hard left-wing Hollywood pushes woke-ism — and their allies in the entertainment media insist we like it — the American public isn’t having it anymore, sending a clear and unambiguous message with their wallets. Will Hollywood learn its lesson? Of course not, but that’s their problem and it’s part of the fun.

This year, woke Hollywood movies tanked left and right as audiences wary of paying for a social justice lecture decided to stay away. Here are 7 of the wokest box-office bombs of the year. Keep in mind, Hollywood blockbusters often need to gross well north of twice their production budget to break even at the box office, due to promotional expenses that aren’t included in budget figures.

1. West Side Story

Estimated production budget: $100 million

Worldwide gross so far: $36.6 million

Steven Spielberg went full woke by not including English subtitles in Spanish-language scene, saying he did not want to give “English the power over the Spanish.” Actress Rachel Zegler further alienated audiences by shaming Americans who don’t speak Spanish. The mainstream media pushed this one hard, but moviegoers everywhere refused to fall for it.

Watch below:

[embedded content]

2. Eternals

Estimated production budget: $200 million

Worldwide gross so far: $400.7 million

Disney-Marvel’s woke superhero dud featured a racially diverse cast, a deaf character, and a gay kiss between two male characters. China has so far denied it a release date, which also hurt the movie at the worldwide box office.

Watch below:

[embedded content]

3. The Last Duel

Estimated production budget: $100 million

Worldwide gross so far: $30.5 million

Ridley Scott’s medieval epic, starring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Adam Driver, incorporated woke gender politics by embracing the #MeToo movement and hiring a female screenwriter to add an anachronistic feminist perspective to the Affleck-Damon-penned screenplay.

Watch below:

[embedded content]

4. In the Heights

Estimated production budget: $55 million

Worldwide gross so far: $43.9 million

This musical “celebration of Hispanic culture” was supposed to be a smash hit but tanked with audiences. “What about immigration?” one character reportedly raps. “Politicians be hating. Racism in this nation’s gone from latent to blatant.” Enough said.

Watch below:

[embedded content]

5. Space Jam: A New Legacy

Estimated production budget: $150 million

Worldwide gross so far: $162.8 million

NBA star LeBron James has taken a series of increasingly anti-police positions. The pro-China athlete even threatened the Ohio police officer who shot teenager Ma’Khia Bryant in order to protect another young girl. “You’re Next,” James tweeted, along with a photo of the officer. Audiences stayed away in droves.

[embedded content]

6. No Time to Die

Estimated production budget: $250 million

Worldwide gross so far: $774 million

Daniel Craig’s last outing as 007 could lose as much as $100 million due to marketing expenses and costs related to its repeated, pandemic-related delays.The movie embraced woke identity politics by creating a black female 007 character and making the character Q a gay man. Filmmaker Cary Fukunaga smeared the movie franchise by implying Sean Connery’s James Bond was a rapist.

[embedded content]

7. Flag Day

Estimated production budget: More than $1 million

Worldwide gross so far: $820,000

Sean Penn’s latest directorial effort was a small-scale indie production that never found an audience. Penn has spent the past year publicly advocating for vaccine mandates, even going so far as to shame unvaccinated moviegoers.

[embedded content]

Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at [email protected].