We're three weeks out from Disney's release of its box office flop, the live-action remake of 'Snow White.' Conservative estimates put the film's budget at $240 million (and that's probably a low estimate), and Screen Rant reports it's only made $169 million since debuting March 21.
From the outset, Disney was hoping for a 'reimagined' princess story, one where -- according to 'Snow White' co-star Gal Gadot -- the princess saves herself.
Yawn.
Lead actress Rachel Zegler did the film no favors with her snotty and politically charged comments in the run-up to the film's release, calling the 1937 animated version 'weird' and wishing death on Trump supporters. But she, ultimately, is not the reason the movie bombed harder than the Enola Gay.
It's because Disney, and Hollywood in general, continue to make films and television shows for 'modern audiences' that simply do not exist.
And it appears they continue to learn nothing from their repeated box office embarrassments.
Vanessa Kirby Confirms 'Fantastic Four: First Steps' Explores Gender Politics With Sue Storm pic.twitter.com/dxSB4K2mxk
— Fandom Pulse (@fandompulse) April 10, 2025
Marvel and Disney will be releasing 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' on July 25. It, too, is targeted at 'modern audiences', according entertainment site That Park Place:
'One of the things I love most from Sue’s history is when she becomes Malice, and all her dark stuff comes out,' Kirby said, proving that while she might share a name with FF co-creator Jack Kirby she doesn’t have a healthy respect for his work. 'I was obsessed with that chapter of her life. So I wanted to make sure that there were tones of Malice in there with her, that she wasn’t just the stereotype of a goody, sweet mother. I’ve always been really interested in the mess of femininity, and how can you be both? How can you be all the things? Not just the tough, invincible, powerful woman, but also a mother who gives birth, which is itself a superhero act.'
The implication is clear: the Sue of old isn’t acceptable anymore. Today, she must embody everything at once—a maternal figure, a political leader, a complex emotional being, and an empowered icon. This is one of the clearest Fantastic Four political MCU changes defining the team’s new 'modern audience' direction.
If these so-called 'modern audiences' existed, 'Snow White' would've done well at the box office and Disney shows like 'The Acolyte' -- described by creator Leslye Headland as 'the gayest Star Wars ever' -- wouldn't have been canceled after one season.
It's not just a problem infecting Disney, however.
Amazon's billion-dollar catastrophe called 'Rings of Power' and the BBC's ruination of 'Dr. Who' are more examples of the Left retconning beloved intellectual properties (IPs) in the name of 'diversity' and 'modern audiences.'
It's done#RIPDoctorWho pic.twitter.com/GpFdw33STq
— Nerdrotic (@Nerdrotics) April 10, 2025
Most people, including myself, do not want a political treatise served up with their movie theater popcorn. We go to the movies to be entertained, awed, inspired, and moved. Nor do we want to see ourselves 'reflected' in movies and on television. That's just projecting reality onto the silver or flat screen, and we can get that by looking around us.
We want to escape reality.
I spent a little bit of time running the numbers, and it's not sustainable for studios -- no matter how big or powerful -- to keep hemorrhaging money on movies targeted at demographics that don't actually exist. So what gives?
Then I remembered the thing I always say: politics is downstream of culture.
And the lightbulb clicked: it's not about making money. It's about normalizing this woke garbage to transform reality.
At the end of March, 'Star Wars' actor John Boyega attacked fans of the IP. Here's what he said:
John Boyega called out “Star Wars” for being “so white” during an interview as part of the new Apple TV+ original documentary “Number One on the Call Sheet: Black Leading Men in Hollywood” (via Entertainment Weekly). Boyega debuted as Finn in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and reprised the character in “The Last Jedi” and “The Rise of Skywalker.” His role in the sequel trilogy led to online harassment from racist and toxic “Star Wars” fans upset with a Black actor playing a lead hero in the space franchise.
“Lemme tell ya, ‘Star Wars’ always had the vibe of being in the most whitest, elite space. It’s a franchise that’s so white that a Black person existing in [it] was something,” Boyega said in the documentary. “You can always tell it’s something when some ‘Star Wars’ fans try to say, ‘Well, we had Lando Calrissian and had Samuel L. Jackson!’ It’s like telling me how many cookie chips are in the cookie dough. It’s like, they just scattered that in there, bro!”
“They’re okay with us playing the best friend, but once we touch their heroes, once we lead, once we trailblaze, it’s like, ‘Oh my God, it’s just a bit too much! They’re pandering,'” the actor added, while also acknowledging that being cast in the franchise was a “fundamental moment” in his career.
In Boyega's logic, the old 'Star Wars' is fundamentally bad, flawed because -- in his words -- it's 'so white.' The fact his character was a flop is not the fault of fans. Speaking only for myself, I would have loved to see Boyega as the lead. Disney made different creative choices and focused on the milquetoast Mary Sue who is Rey.
(I guess intersectional feminist girl-bossing beats out racial diversity, but that's a topic for another post).
So rather than create new 'Star Wars' stories with interesting characters, the 'solution' is to cancel the original because it wasn't 'diverse' enough, ignore its lore, and pretend the new version was the only one that ever existed or mattered. My children -- ages 18, 15, and almost 12 -- and children younger than them will only come to the original 'Star Wars' (or 'Fantastic Four' or 'Snow White') if their parents and older adults introduce them to the original IPs.
So rather than creating properties for 'modern audiences', they're playing the long game: creating the 'modern audiences' who will think the garbage that passes for movies and television -- and the sociopolitical messages therein -- are the norm.
