8 Movies That Inspired Online Protests
2. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
What They Said: “Boycott Star Wars VII because it is anti-white propaganda promoting white genocide” read a tweet in October 2015. Another claimed: “It’s nothing more than a social justice propaganda piece that alienates its core audience of young white males.”
They were reacting to the movie’s first trailer, which made it clear that the main characters weren’t young white men, sparking accusations that JJ Abrams was pushing a sinister multicultural agenda and leading to the least successful protest against a movie ever mounted.
What Happened: The Force Awakens opened with a $247 million weekend gross, taking nearly twenty times as much as its nearest competitor, Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Road Chip. Adjusted for inflation, it was the eleventh highest opening of all time, ahead of The Empire Strikes Back (#13) and Return Of The Jedi (#16), but way behind A New Hope (#2). Gone With The Wind claimed the top spot.
A year later, Rogue One was hit with its own boycott when an outraged Twitter post claimed the filmmakers had reshot the movie “to add in Anti Trump scenes calling him a racist”, so expect this to continue for as long as Disney keeps making Star Wars movies.