On January 16th, President Trump posted on Truth Social that he was appointing three actors to be ‘Special Envoys’ for the White House to Hollywood in the hopes of creating a new “Golden Age” of filmmaking. Just over a week earlier, a group called “True to Texas” launched a campaign with A-List stars campaigning for the Lone Star State to increase incentives for large productions to find a home there. Alongside these moves, several large box office failures and the success of smaller, more conservative leaning projects seem to indicate a potential political shift happening in the Hollywood system.
In President Trump’s Truth Social post, he named Mel Gibson, Jon Voight, and Sylvester Stallone as Special Ambassadors to Hollywood for his administration.
What exactly this initiative entails is still to be determined. The apparent main goal, at least from the social post, seems to be to return film productions back to the States that have shifted overseas for financial reasons. Gibson stated that he had not heard of the President’s plans before the announcement was made.
“I got the tweet at the same time as all of you and was just as surprised,” Gibson said in a statement to Variety. “Nevertheless, I heed the call. My duty as a citizen is to give any help and insight I can.”
Regardless of the real world impact of President Trump’s announcement, it indicates that many are recognizing a problem in the film industry. This isn’t the only action that points toward change.
A group called “True to Texas” released a short film starring Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton, and Renée Zellweger as a promotion to increase film incentives in Texas. The ad was also a distinct appeal to more Southern and traditional American values. Quaid in particular has been a supporter of Trump during this last election cycle, and McConaughey has had an online presence that is distinctly not hyper-liberal, appealing to more moderate political positions. Thornton currently stars in the Paramount+ show “Landman,” which has gained notoriety for its right-leaning political statements on renewable energy and fossil fuels.
On a broader scale, the film industry has been occasionally attempting to create more broad appeal to common audiences. An attempt was made to add a category to the Academy Awards for “outstanding achievement in popular film.” The award was largely criticized by industry journalists and Academy members for trying to gain mainstream appeal, and was dropped from the proceedings. The disconnect between the Hollywood bubble and common movie goers is further illustrated in multiple films released that have a high audience score and low critics score on review site Rotten Tomatoes. This trend has been increasing over the years, but has become more extreme as of late.
Recent years have seen significant financial failures like Joker: Folie á Deux, The Marvels, The Flash, and Disney projects Strange World and Lightyear. Like the aforementioned Disney projects, a number of films with overtly liberal themes and messaging have been commercial failures. Conversely, films and television with Christian or conservative messaging have been increasingly successful like Sound of Freedom, Jesus Revolution, other Angel Studios projects, and Taylor Sheridan’s run of shows on Paramount+. To this day, the most financially successful independent film of all time is Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.
There are increasing signs of Hollywood and the entertainment industry being impacted by the growing political shift that is taking place in the country following the pandemic and the reelection of President Trump. How exactly Trump’s plans, new filming hubs in the heart of the states, and the increasing success of conservative leaning projects impacts the future creative decisions of the industry remains to be seen. It is possible that these are only temporary or superficial changes, or they will only impact small corners of film production.
