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Notes -
Is that really the case though ?
I would expect that if someone put out a show with an all-white cast (someone downthread mentioned TheNorthman), they wouldn't get a backlash strong enough to actually hurt their bottom line (as long as they don't go aggressively market their product as all-white/anti-woke etc.).
Some theories:
True Believers: A lot of the people involved in media production care more about diversity than about being faithful to history / the original work
Cowards: A lot of those people are in a disproportionally woke-leaning social environment, so even if the backlash doesn't hurt the movie's bottom line, it might still make their friends angry at them or make them open to careerist back-stabbing
Profit maximizers: I'm mistaken and actually the backlash would be hard enough to hurt the bottom line
No such thing as bad publicity: the problem isn't the backlash, it's that putting woke characters is good for the bottom line either directly (by marketing to minorities / the woke) or indirectly (because marketers can cherry pick (or fabricate) "racist" comments on the internet, make up a fake controversy, and get everybody to talk about their movie)
I actually suspect that the wrath of the media-activist complex could be good for the bottom line, if exploited in a similar way: find (or fabricate) the dumbest comments, blow it out of proportion, reap the free publicity. Though that only works if you don't care about your reputation in lefty circles, which tends to be important in the media world.
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