Go woke, go broke'? New study challenges claims progressive films flop at the box office

"Go woke, go broke is a movie catchphrase du jour, loved by rightwing culture warriors, who take aim at mainstream films judged to have adopted progressive values, and therefore are worthy of boycott and complaints. Films as varied as The Marvels, Charlie's Angels, Ghostbusters (the 2016 reboot) and Pixar's Elio have been attacked for their perceived commitment to inclusiveness and diversity, and in some cases their box office revenue appears to have been affected as a result."

"First presented at the Zurich film festival on Saturday, Follows' research suggests that there is no blanket rule for the success or otherwise of progressive-themed mainstream cinema, and adds that for some genres horror, sports and music films in particular diverse casting and identity-driven stories can have a substantially positive effect on commercial success. Conversely, however, Follows concludes that big-budget blockbusters face considerable risks if they indulge in heavy-handed politics, incurring a backlash if audiences feel political messaging overrides story or character."

Research analyzing around 4 million publicly available comments used text embedding to convert text into numerical values, allowing identification of specific terms and sentiment. The analysis compared comment strength around individual ideas to profitability estimates to assess commercial impact. Findings show no blanket rule for progressive-themed mainstream cinema: diverse casting and identity-driven stories can substantially increase commercial success in genres such as horror, sports and music. Big-budget blockbusters face considerable risks when heavy-handed political messaging appears to override story or character, which can provoke audience backlash. Rewriting legacy canon or established characters is identified as a strong negative signal for commercial performance.

Read at www.theguardian.com