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Box Office Nightmare: Revenues Plunge to Historic Lows Amid Woke Hollywood Flops and Job Cuts
Conservative Playbook ^ | November 02, 2025 | Clive Cummings

Posted on 11/02/2025 8:56:50 AM PST by Red Badger

The film industry’s troubles show no sign of easing. Domestic box office revenue for October 2025 came in at roughly $425 million, marking the worst performance in 27 years outside of the pandemic era, per Comscore data. This dismal figure falls well below even the unadjusted $385.2 million from October 1997, a time before blockbuster franchises dominated screens.

Major releases failed to draw crowds. Disney’s *Tron: Ares*, with a reported net cost of $220 million, opened to just $33.2 million domestically and has scraped together only $65.1 million in the U.S., contributing to an estimated $132 million loss. Globally, it limped to $125.4 million, far short of expectations for a high-profile sci-fi sequel.

Similarly, Dwayne Johnson’s *The Smashing Machine* debuted with a meager $5.8 million opening weekend, ending its domestic run around $11 million and hovering near $20 million worldwide despite being boosted by excellent critical reviews. These flops join a string of underperformers that left theaters empty.

Beyond the ticket sales slump, the sector faces massive job erosion. Recent Bureau of Labor Statistics figures reveal staggering losses, with over 42,000 positions vanishing in the past two years—about a third of the workforce.

“FilmLA … reported that on-location production was down 22% in the first quarter of 2025,” adding to the pain from prior strikes and economic shifts. Studios have begun pulling back from California, citing high costs and regulatory burdens under far-left leadership. Despite a deep hatred by most in Hollywood toward anything “conservative,” they’re learning to love lower taxes and lighter regulations in red states like Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas.

Audience fatigue with heavy-handed messaging plays a role in the downturn. Pushback against ideological content has grown, as viewers seek entertainment free from lectures. The poor box office numbers come at a time when the film industry as a whole seems to be in decline. Yet some insiders whisper that this erosion serves deeper agendas, allowing tech giants to step in and reshape storytelling on their terms.

Enter artificial intelligence as a looming disruptor. OpenAI unveiled Sora 2 in September, an advanced video generator capable of rendering complex scenes from text prompts.

“Just last month, OpenAI released Sora 2, an AI video generator that could make much of the film production process unnecessary,” said a Hollywood film editor who asked not to be named. “To say we’re concerned is an understatement.”

This tool, now available via app in the U.S. and beyond, raises questions about who controls the narratives when machines handle creation. Critics in Japan, including reps from Bandai Namco and Studio Ghibli, have already demanded OpenAI halt unauthorized training on their IPs, hinting at broader battles over intellectual property in an AI-driven future.

If trends hold, traditional Hollywood may fade further, replaced by algorithms that prioritize efficiency over human creativity. Families and everyday moviegoers deserve stories that resonate with real life, not agendas or automated output. The industry’s path forward demands a return to what once made films great: genuine talent and crowd-pleasing tales.


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Business/Economy; History; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: bigscreentv; donothings; flops; getwokegobroke; hollywood; movies; overpaid; revenue
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To: Red Badger

I’m tired of all the computer generated stuff, the LGTBQ+, the violence, the over the top sex, .....I did go to see the last Downton Abbey....it was beautiful but was obviously the end of the story.

I tend to like Tom Cruise movies...better than I think I like the man himself.

Hollywood deserves to fall...lots of really bad people there.

Excerpt from Elizabeth Nickson yesterday”
Across every discipline creators are in distress. In Hollywood particularly, people, ordinary middle-class men and women in their 30s and 40s are living in their cars, and tiktoking their panic because a once healthy income has vanished. Hollywood was so successful, art school graduates could make $5,000 a week to start, and hundreds of thousands a year within five. Eventually this easy money attracted every amoral, repellent, venal, snake-head, male and female, in the world. They, motivated entirely by greed, could be made to do anything. Even, for power, eat babies during Luciferian rituals, if you believe the hundreds of testimonies available.

https://open.substack.com/pub/elizabethnickson/p/the-old-bad-demon-inflected-culture-7c0?r=rc7fq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false


61 posted on 11/02/2025 9:59:59 AM PST by Aria (Voted for Trump 2016, 2020 & 10/22/2024 )
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To: Red Badger

Haven’t been to the movies in well over 20 years. The movies suck and so do most of the audiences.


62 posted on 11/02/2025 10:04:12 AM PST by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: Aria

Disney ruined the Star Wars franchise.
Disney ruined the Marvel Comics genre.
Paramount ruined the Star Trek franchise.
Warner Brothers ruined the DC Comics genre.
Amazon MGM is about to ruin the 007 James Bond franchise..........


63 posted on 11/02/2025 10:08:53 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Red Badger

Disney ruined the Pixar franchise.

I was a HUGE Pixar fan from the beginning, with “Toy Story”. The sequels were pretty good, too. Then came “Lightyear”.

I was thinking, a Buzz Lightyear origin story should be pretty good, and it could be followed up with a Woody origin story. They screwed the pooch on that one, even discounting Chris Evans’ voiceover for Buzz Lightyear. Buzz’s partner was a lesbian, and it served absolutely no purpose in the story, except to send a message that lesbians can be mothers AND astronauts.

No more Pixar for me.


64 posted on 11/02/2025 10:16:17 AM PST by AF_Blue ("America is all about speed. Hot, nasty, bad ass speed." - Eleanor Roosevelt, 1936)
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To: AF_Blue

Yes, I forgot about that!..................


65 posted on 11/02/2025 10:17:57 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: AF_Blue

And then they wonder why their movies are flopping like beached fish.................


66 posted on 11/02/2025 10:18:43 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Red Badger

Go woke go broke!


67 posted on 11/02/2025 10:26:21 AM PST by Savage Beast ("Break free from the temptations and shackles of this world." Erika Kirk, September 21, 2025)
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To: Savage Beast

Looks like they would learn sooner or later..............


68 posted on 11/02/2025 10:29:20 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: BookmanTheJanitor

“That smelled just like baloney for some reason.”


69 posted on 11/02/2025 10:30:12 AM PST by Sicon ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - G. Orwell)
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To: Red Badger

They don’t have a clue how much we HATE Hollywood.


70 posted on 11/02/2025 10:35:37 AM PST by Ge0ffrey
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To: gnarledmaw

Video Killed the Radio Star.
AI will kill the Hollywood Star.


71 posted on 11/02/2025 10:43:36 AM PST by Right Brigade (A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you,)
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To: Red Badger

Agree. We’re sitting on a script for “Malta” about the 1565 defense of Malta by the Knights of St. John vs. 5x their number of Muslims.


72 posted on 11/02/2025 10:56:58 AM PST by LS ("Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually." Jimi Hendrix)
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To: dforest

I just dropped a bunch of pay movies on DirecTV just for that reason. Saved $60 a month by dropping movie channels I never watch. Wish I could drop more.
TCM, IFC, Sundance all used to be good channels with uncut foreign movies. Now it is chopped up movies and old TV shows over and over and over.
I still miss Samurai Saturdays on IFC.
Now only TCM is left worth watching.
I refuse to watch a 2 1/2 hour(150 minute) time slot featuring a 70-90 minute movie.


73 posted on 11/02/2025 10:58:12 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar ( REOPEN THE MENTAL HOSPITALS CLOSED IN THE 1970S!)
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To: rktman

I heard one ticket was purchased by Chris Christie 🤣


74 posted on 11/02/2025 11:00:56 AM PST by jonsie
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To: Leaning Right
"Add Walter Brennan, too. He’d make any scene better."

Yes. Bring back Jack Elam as well.

He was in everything when I was growing up.


75 posted on 11/02/2025 11:09:49 AM PST by Right Brigade (A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you,)
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To: DownInFlames

You mean, The Final Countdown?


76 posted on 11/02/2025 11:18:02 AM PST by LouAvul (Galatians: proof that dispensationalism in any form is false doctrine. Salvation is only in Jesus.)
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To: Red Badger

Enter artificial intelligence as a looming disruptor.

Scrupt writhers were traded off for bang falsh sex about the only crowd they can draw in noe are teens.


77 posted on 11/02/2025 11:25:26 AM PST by Vaduz
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To: LS

That is one heck of story. The siege of St. Elmo was insane.


78 posted on 11/02/2025 11:55:51 AM PST by dynachrome (“They don’t kill you because you’re a Nazi; they call you a Nazi so they can kill you.”)
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To: dforest
Hollywood didn't go broke because it went woke. It was already going broke and went woke in an attempt to get what they could from a bounce of a dead cat.

People went to the movies when there were few other options. Along came VHS cassettes, then DVDs and video games, then online movies.

79 posted on 11/02/2025 12:49:30 PM PST by T.B. Yoits
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To: Forward the Light Brigade
"Want to make bucks make a movie about how America and China were allies against Japan in WW II."

China certainly helped the Doolittle raiders and paid dearly for it. The movie's going through the screenplay process.

80 posted on 11/02/2025 1:56:03 PM PST by jonrick46 (Leftniks chase illusions of motherships at the end of the pier.)
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