Hollywood blames Bush for boxoffice disappointment

The New York Times > Movies > Movies News and Features > Disney and Pixar Score Again as 'The Incredibles' Opens Big:
"Wayne Llewellyn, the president of distribution at Paramount, said that the conservative ethos reflected in last week's election results might have hurt the film [Alfie. remake of a 60s classic that opened to a mere $6.5 million on 2,000 screeens].
"'It could be the mood of the country right now,' he said. 'It seems to be the result of the election. Maybe they didn't want to see a guy that slept around.'"

Look closely at the studio exec's actual quote above. Why can't they see that the election result itself is a reflection, in part, of the culture war in which a majority of Americans are on one side and a larger majority of his peers are on the other. This also shows itself in the difficulty Hollywood has in producing serious movies that appeal to large numbers of adults and Tinseltown's total surprise at the Mel Gibson's ability to produce just such a film. Another indicator, while the movies rely on sex and bathroom jokes to cater to a teen and young adult audience, many of the really big box office hits of recent years have been more family friendly fare - children's animated films which draw in parents with them or old-fashioned adventure stories (you know, good guys and bad guys, and the good guys win) like The Lord of The Rings.

Yet we still don't see much of this more moral material coming out of Hollywood. So, if money doesn't explain the bias, what are the other options? One may be a lack of genuine talent. I see lots of movies made that are based on Shakespeare's plays, but very few others that show his talent for telling a story. The other cause, and I think the greater, is that the generation that is now in control in Hollywood - producers, directors, distributors - came out of a leftwing cultural milieu that views traditional America as the enemy. This is why modern Hollywood admires pushing the envelope and seems embarassed by the classic Hollywood's respect for social conventions.