Rogue One made box office history on its opening weekend, bringing around $155 million in North America and another $135.5 million overseas, making it the top movie globally and the second highest grossing December opening in North America on record. It seems the right-wingers’ #DumpStarWars movement—a boycott of Rogue One, which prominent conservative conspiracy theorist Mark Dice called “feminist propaganda” in a now-deleted tweet—didn’t work out too great.
Alt-right mouthpieces Mike Cernovich told Wired that the boycott was triggered by Trump supporters feeling attacked by the film. How so? In November, the official Star Wars Twitter account sent out a tweet asking “Are you with her?” and its screenwriter Chris Weitz has also spoken out in support of Clinton and against white supremacy.
While supporting Hillary Clinton is certainly not the same thing as attacking Trump or his supporters, Cernovich nevertheless told Wired, “Giving money to people who attack them is pathetic. I’m going to organize more boycotts.” In response, Wired mused, “if our math is right... their boycott [is] a protest against free speech.”
Although #DumpStarWars was an overall failure, Cernovich is claiming victory because the movie made less money than Force Awakens.
Jack Posobiec, a Trump supporter instrumental in the #DumpStarWars movement, retweeted a message pointing out that Rogue One brought in a little under $100 million less than last year’s Force Awakens. Posobiec also tweeted, “Funny how the corporate media didn’t start attacking me until I exposed Star Wars for the slimy subversive agenda they have turned it into.”
CNN points out that “with Rogue One being Disney’s first Star Wars spinoff, the premiere is a great start to what should be a successful theatrical run into January.”
Well, it seems $290 million is about the best kind of failure you could hope for.