Never one to pass up a chance to parrot right-wing talking points, former The View co-host Meghan McCain dedicated her latest Daily Mail column to championing Top Gun: Maverick as an anti-woke “wake up call” for Hollywood. Earlier in the week, far-right radio host Steve Gruber claimed the film is a “warning” that Democrats will lose the midterm elections because the sequel shows that “American pride” is at an all-time high. McCain echoed similar thoughts by staking Top Gun: Maverick‘s box office success on its unbridled patriotism and… the Taiwenese flag on Maverick’s flight jacket that everyone totally remembers from the first movie?
Via Daily Mail:
The movie isn’t overly political, it isn’t depressing, it isn’t focusing on the flaws of the United States of America and why we suck and why our flag and national anthem aren’t worth honoring. The filmmakers also took a stand against the sickening Hollywood trend of pandering to the demands of the totalitarian Chinese government.
In the 1986 original movie, there is a patch depicting the Taiwanese flag on Maverick’s flight jacket. But during 2019 previews, the patch had been removed to alleged appease Chinese censors. Movie-goers were happy to see the flag had been restored in the film — a signal that neither the filmmakers nor Cruise are content with being lapdogs to the Chinese regime.
As McCain wonders “why has it taken modern Hollywood so long to realize how to make a successful movie,” conveniently sidestepping massive blockbuster hauls from recent films like Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Batman, she claims that Top Gun: Maverick is definitive proof that “Hollywood must wake up to the reality that ‘go woke, go broke’ is real.”
Here’s the thing though, while Maverick’s opening weekend is obviously huge and a career best for Cruise, its domestic box office haul was only $124 million. Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness beat that total by almost 50% with a box office take of $184 million. That film openly featured a lesbian superhero and her two mothers. But, yes, Meghan, it’s the lack of “wokeness” that made Top Gun: Maverick the only successful movie of the year. You really stuck it to Hollywood.
(Via Daily Mail)