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As Election Looms, Politics Can Seep Into Movies Whether Hollywood Likes It or Not
In an election year, politics is seeping into movies whether Hollywood wants it to or not.
That strategy is prominent in the movie’s patriotic-tinged marketing materials, which include a blood-soaked trailer featuring a missile that blows up the Lincoln Memorial, a poster of soldiers sandbagging the Statue of Liberty’s flame and references to successionist forces of California and Texas. Yet for the most part, there’s no evidence that the perception of partisanship has an impact on ticket sales, at least in the U.S. (Internationally, “Barbie” wasn’t shown in territories that were offended by the cartography, and “Lightyear” and “Strange World” were banned in countries that censor LGBTQ content.) Consider that 65% of Americans say they feel exhausted when thinking about politics, according to a Pew Research Center poll — and it’s no surprise marketing departments have made a concerted effort to tread lightly with messaging or promotional campaigns that could be perceived as leaning one way or the other.
Or read this on Variety