The Critics Trash Reagan Film, Audiences Love It

Dennis Quaid has been making the rounds to promote Reagan, which opens this weekend in theaters. The critics have once again embarrassed themselves with their assessment of this film. That isn’t surprising. The only surprising thing is that three critics gave it a positive rating.

Here is what it looks like:

According to Deadline, Reagan's box office will be in the single digits. That means it won’t break even at 10 million, which is a shame. I was hoping for a blowout. Maybe word of mouth will help drive the box office, showing Hollywood that Conservatives still care about the movies.

Quaid has been interviewed on Fox, Ben Shapiro, Tucker Carlson, and on Friday, Megyn Kelly:

The Dave Rubin show:

And the Today Show:

And Joe Rogan:

You’d think, given that level of widespread publicity, there might be more interest in the film to drive bigger numbers at the box office. Going to the movies now is expensive. If families are having a hard time affording groceries, they won’t spend it at the movies.

Audiences must feel highly motivated to turn out and spend around $50. For any fan of Ronald Reagan, it seems to me it would be worth the money. And it’s probably a good time at the movies, although I have not seen it, so I can’t say for sure.

Dennis Quaid and his film will never be considered for the Oscar race. It would never happen, no matter how great his performance was. There is no way they would honor a film that isn’t a complete and total take-down of Reagan.

Then again, winning Oscars isn’t quite what it used to be. The Oscars used to celebrate a once-thriving film industry but the bottom has dropped out. Audiences have vanished. The Oscars exist much like Fashion Week or the Tonys — a niche industry for a very select group.

If Reagan does well at the box office, it will join Sound of Freedom as an example of the free market, proving that if they make movies people want to see, they will turn out to see them. Conservatives stopped going to the movies long ago, but maybe they’ll find their way back.

Here in Telluride, it’s very clear that the people who chose the films did so to amplify “the message,” especially in an election year. Two films are centered on Trump.

One is The Apprentice, which many people on the Left believe accurately tells of Trump’s relationship with Roy Cohn, with Trump raping his former wife, Ivana. The other is an Errol Morris documentary, Separated, which discusses separating families at the border.

There is a James Carville documentary just bought by CNN Films:

There are documentaries on abortion, climate change, and the usual issues the Democrats care about. The Obamas’ production company, Higher Ground, has a movie here.

The Trump obsession is going to take years to work it through Hollywood. The special people make it known to Trump supporters every day how much they hate them, whether it’s the Foo Fighters and ABBA threatening to sue if Trump uses their music at their rallies or the propaganda disguised as “documentary.”

The problem with all the movies that promote “The Message” is that we already know how they will end and what they’ll be about. They can’t surprise us because they exist to promote the ideology of the Left. I keep thinking how much more interesting it would be if they were more interested in asking questions than answering them.

At least Nicole Shanahan has now found a way to mock them. The counterculture is alive!

I wasn’t disinvited from every party here in Telluride, but I was dropped from the Patron’s Brunch, which I’d been attending for many of the 14 years I’ve traveled here. It is a punch in the gut, not because it’s fun to drink champagne and rub elbows with celebrities, but because it’s still hard to accept that people I have known for years would act this way.

But oh, well. Hopefully, there will be a few films here that are worth the time and expense of getting here.

If any of you go see Reagan, let me know what you think!

Telluride, Colorado, 3:23pm