Star Wars: Men’s Rights Group Claims Its Boycott Cost The Force Awakens Millions
Online “men’s rights activism” group Return of Kings has claimed that its boycott of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ cost Disney $4.2 million (£2.8 million) in ticket sales.
They calculated the cost of their proposed boycott using a Twitter poll that suggested 55% of their followers avoided the film because of its “social justice nature”.
The group called for a boycott of the hit sci-fi film because they had identified the film as “SJW propaganda”. SJW stands for “Social Justice Warrior” and it’s a term used in certain corners of the internet to describe people who stand up for and defend equal rights online.
The problem with ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’, according to Return of Kings, is its “non-white and female agenda”, ie its lead characters - Rey and Finn, played by Daisy Ridley and John Boyega - are not white men.
The figure of $4.2 million was reached by counting the number of people who read their site (900k in November and December 2015), calculating 55% of that and multiplying it by $8.38, the average price of a US cinema ticket.
As financial site Forbes points out: “Domestically, $4.2 million amounts to less than one percent of total box office (.006) and half that internationally (.003) which isn’t even enough to make Disney chuckle in derision, let alone care.”
The group previously called for a boycott of ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ because of the leading role played by Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa saying: “This is the Trojan Horse feminists and Hollywood leftists will use to (vainly) insist on the trope women are equal to men in all things, including physique, strength, and logic.”
‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ is in cinemas now and it looks set to topple ‘Avatar’ as the highest-grossing movie of all time. Looks like that boycott’s really working out for them.
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Image credits: Disney
