Currently, according to The Quorum, a company that tracks enthusiasm for upcoming movies, interest in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is plummeting, and when I say plummeting, I mean that more people are excited about Scary Movie 6, the latest installment in a 26-year-old franchise.
For context, Toy Story 5 enjoys a 62 level of interest in seeing it in theaters. Scary Movie 6 sits at 55. However, in recent weeks, The Odyssey fell from a healthy 54 to just 46, which, per World of Reel, puts it at the same level as Disclosure Day and Supergirl, both of which are also not performing too strongly in tracking.
World of Reel adds that the “troubling indicator here is that such a high-profile release of this scale is seeing declining audience interest, since tentpole films rely heavily on sustained enthusiasm leading up to release.”
Exactly.
Had The Odyssey always tracked around 46, that would not be great, but it’s better than watching your potential audience lose interest just six weeks from your July 17 release date. This is when the studio really starts spending money on publicity. This is when awareness and interest should rise.
So why the drop?
Two things, in my humble opinion…
The first is that, based on the footage released so far, the movie simply doesn’t look all that good. I’m second to none in my love for director Christopher Nolan. He’s the best thing going in movies today: a blockbuster filmmaker who delivers original stories. Still, this creates zero excitement:
Then there’s the race and gender-swapping controversies…
Me? I’m Gen-X and not hung up on race, so I could not care less if Lupita Nyong’o plays Helen of Troy. She’s a beautiful and talented Oscar winner. Whatever. I grew up watching Eartha Kitt play Catwoman (she also played Helen of Troy for Orson Welles in a stage production of The Odyssey). I grew up watching The Wiz (1978). Who else could play Red in The Shawshank Redemption other than Morgan Freeman? In the novel, he’s white. As long as the portrayal is respectful, I also don’t care when white actors play minority characters. Paul Muni was brilliant as a Chinese man in The Good Earth (1936).
Still, I do understand why people are sick of what they see as this endless parade of race-pandering that only goes one way, and that one way is a dedicated crusade at the hands of the Woke Gestapo to erase white icons.
Then there’s this potential debacle…
We do not yet know if Ms. Elliott Page is playing Achilles in Nolan’s $250 million blockbuster, but that would be an outrageous piece of casting, a real slap in the face. A transsexual as mythology’s greatest warrior? Talk about pandering.
The fact that we have not yet been told what Ms. Elliott Page’s role is, the fact that this is being kept secret, only fuels the rumor that she’s playing Achilles.
And so, the whole thing carries with it the stench of woke, and as we all know, woke is box office poison.
Nolan has spent decades building a reputation as a true artist whose only goals are to tell great stories that put butts in seats. Watching him get wrapped around the DEI axle is a real shame. His once shiny brand is now tarnished.
The lack of enthusiasm for Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day isn’t surprising. Let’s face it, over the last 20 years, he’s directed ten movies, and other than the pretty great Lincoln (2012) and pretty good Bridge of Spies (2015), his output has stunk. Spielberg’s name was once box office magic. Those days are long over.
As far as Supergirl, you can read all about that here.