Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may be the left’s biggest star in Congress, but being a Hollywood celebrity will apparently have to wait.
The New York Democrat’s climate-change film “To the End,” produced by Roadside Attractions, brought up the rear at the box office in its debut, taking in less than $10,000 last weekend in 120 theaters for 34th place.
“Roadside Attractions’ documentary on climate change, TO THE END, ‘starring’ AOC, was voted out of the box office—just $9,667 in 120 theaters, $81 per,” tweeted box-office authority Exhibitor Relations. “Yes, $81 per.”
The flick also flopped despite positive reviews from mainstream media outlets like the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, earning an 83% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Not surprisingly, the “Squad” leader’s critics couldn’t resist bringing out the popcorn.
“AOC has 13 million followers on twitter but couldn’t sell $10,000 in tickets to her movie. Weird,” tweeted the blue-check account thebradfordfile.
Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza said the movie “got rave reviews from the usual robotic left-wing claque but still generated a miserable $80 per theater. Over multiple days with multiple showings she sold around 8 tickets per theater. Major bomb!”
“To the End” underperformed even compared with movies released the same weekend in far fewer theaters. The film “Decibel” earned $11,034 despite playing on 15 screens. “Decision to Leave” took in $21,584 while appearing on 40 screens, according to Box Office Mojo.
Why did viewers stay away in droves? Fox News host Jeanine Pirro called the flick “cringeworthy,” while Legal Insurrection writer Mike LaChance tweeted that “People go to the movies to escape stuff like that, not to hear more of it.”
Climate change causes AOC’s Green New Deal movie to tank at theaters https://t.co/k70Te8sROp
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) December 14, 2022
Hollywood in Toto critic Christian Toto said that global-warming films have been box-office losers since Al Gore did brisk business with the 2006 documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”
“Recent Climate Change documentaries have similarly failed to score with U.S. audiences. ‘2040,’ released three years ago, didn’t get a theatrical debut stateside and earned just $1 million in global ticket sales,” Mr. Toto said. “This year’s ‘The Territory,’ about indigenous people fighting against Climate Change, earned just $69 K during its brief theatrical run.”
“To the End” takes a behind-the-scenes look at Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and three other young female politicos fighting for the Green New Deal, the congresswoman’s wildly ambitious legislation to overhaul the U.S. economy and infrastructure.
“Over three years of turbulence and crisis, four young women fight for a Green New Deal, and ignite a historic shift in U.S. climate politics,” said the movie’s promotional blurb.
Introduced in February 2019, the bill was dead on arrival, but Ms. Ocasio-Cortez takes credit in the film for then-Democratic presidential candidate Joseph R. Biden’s hard left turn on energy and climate change.
“We got the candidate that was nominated to come to us,” she says in the trailer.
The film comes as a follow-up to the 2019 release “Knock Down the House,” which focused on the rise of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and other left-wing Democratic candidates. Both movies were directed by Rachel Lears.
Despite the film’s poor showing, the film is generating Oscar buzz. The documentary was picked up by the Sundance Film Festival, fueling predictions that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez will make an appearance on the red carpet at the 2023 Academy Awards.
“Everyone’s missing the point. They don’t care,” tweeted the account called “You serious, Clark?” “They only stuck it on a few screens so they could fulfill the rules the Academy requires so they can give AOC an Oscar.”