Hooray, Hollywood Is History

Jeff Crouere | Mar 16, 2026 | Townhall

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

The 2026 Oscars served as another reminder of what has been lost in our country. This event used to be a celebration of creative geniuses who engaged in making superb movies that millions of Americans enjoyed. In its heyday, Hollywood produced movies that inspired and captivated Americans and delivered true entertainment.

Today, Hollywood delivers movies that preach, depress and appeal to a small segment of Americans. While the Oscars drew a television audience of 57 million in 1998, in recent years, the viewing audience has barely exceeded 20 million.

Sadly, Hollywood is insufferably progressive, and more conservative Americans have disdain for stars who want to “punch” President Donald Trump or spew Left-Wing talking points. Nevertheless, Hollywood insiders continue to live in their “bubble” as if everything is fine.

It is easy to understand their disconnect from reality. For example, all 2026 Oscar nominees received “swag” bags worth an outrageous $350,000. As noted by Simon Kent in Breitbart, “While the gift bag is packed with luxury skincare and associated experiences, the focus has shifted to ultra-private villas that prioritize total seclusion so the elites can meet each other far away from the prying eyes of mere mortals.” The “villas” for the pampered celebrities are in such far-flung destinations as Costa Rica, Ibiza, Finland, and Sri Lanka.

While the Hollywood elite may like to pretend it is business as usual, much is wrong in their industry. For example, NBC just announced the cancellation of its syndicated television show, Access Hollywood, after almost 30 years on the air. This stunning announcement confirms that Americans are losing interest in the antics of these insufferable, progressive fools.

Even liberal comedian Bill Maher blasted the Oscars. He said, “The whole thing is so Hollywood, a room full of know-nothings who call themselves the Academy, making everyone tremble before their judgment, even though their judgment is often terrible, and fails the test of time. Maybe the hashtag should be, Oscar’s so wrong.”

Maher also ridiculed the Oscars “So White” movement that started in 2015. He claimed the telecast was “no longer a long, boring show full of white people. It’s a long, boring show full of ‘all’ people.”

For decades, Americans enjoyed “dinner and a movie” as a great date night or an escape from the troubles of the world. Sadly, for many people, the smell of popcorn and the buzz of movie theaters is long gone. Today, millions of Americans are watching their entertainment on smart devices, streaming video content, and skipping the outrageous prices of going to movies in the dwindling number of theaters that remain open.

In 2015, the average price for a ticket to the movies was only $8.43. By early 2026, the national average for a movie ticket had increased almost 50 percent to $12.45. Even worse, for “premium formats,” such as Dolby Cinema, the cost can exceed $30 per ticket in some cities.

Not surprisingly, AMC has closed approximately 20 percent of its theaters in the past few years as viewers have left theaters in droves. Part of the decline was due to COVID and the new habits Americans developed during the pandemic.

While the convenience of staying at home is understandable, what has been lost is meeting friends at the theaters, the communal aspect of watching a movie with others and enjoying the collective reaction to exciting scenes.

Another reason for the decline is that Hollywood refuses to produce movies that millions of Americans want to see. While there is an audience for movies that feature cartoons, sadistic horror, or superheroes, there are many other categories that have been totally ignored in recent years.

Consequently, North American box office revenue has dropped from $16.4 billion in 2002 to only $8.87 billion in 2025, a decline of almost 50 percent.

These serious economic problems are leading to a crisis in the movie industry. There has been an “exodus of production from California to lower-cost territories” and tens of thousands of layoffs. Since 2018, film production days in Los Angeles County have dropped by almost 50 percent. One of the reasons for this crisis is that California is a notoriously high-tax state led by an extremely progressive Governor Gavin Newsom, with an anti-business philosophy.

The Hollywood environment is toxic to any business that wants to succeed in a country that leans center-right politically and voted to elect Trump as President in 2024. Most Americans do not want to see movies that promote leftist causes and demonize our country’s values and traditions. As Grace Salvatore writes in The Daily Wire, “Hollywood is delivering lectures instead of entertainment and wondering why half the country has stopped watching.”

In the last few decades, Americans have been subjected to far too many presenters and award winners at the Oscars spouting a stream of progressive pablum from the podium. Thus, these “red state” Americans checked out and turned the channel.

There is a great divide between those who continue to watch the Oscars and those who have had enough. Salvatore explains that the viewing audience for the Oscars “skews older, wealthier, and disproportionately coastal; Los Angeles, New York, and other urban markets register above the national average. Many younger Americans aren’t interested at all. This is a cluster of affluent, urban viewers watching a show that reflects their own tastes and values — a clear marker of the gulf between Middle America and the coasts. The Great Divide in black tie.”

This division provides a terrific opportunity for filmmakers in other areas of the country to produce content that is more appealing than what Hollywood is offering. To say Americans are dissatisfied with the movies Hollywood is producing is an understatement. According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 54 percent of Americans believe the quality of our movies has declined in the last two decades. Conversely, only 27 percent see improvement.

Let us hope there will be a new generation of filmmakers who are interested in making great movies and will leave the lectures to Left-Wing hippie college professors.

Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and his award-winning program, “Ringside Politics,” airs Saturdays from 1-2 p.m. CT nationally on Real America’s Voice TV Network & AmericasVoice.News and weekdays from 7-9 a.m. & 6-7 p.m. CT on WGSO 990-AM & Wgso.com. He is the President and General Manager of WGSO Radio, a political columnist, the author of America’s Last Chance, and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and at Crouere.net. For more information, email him at jcrouere@gmail.com.

Award Season Idiocy

Kevin McCullough | Mar 15, 2026 | Townhall

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

Every year about this time, Hollywood reminds the rest of the country just how disconnected it is from the people who actually make America work.

The Golden Globes start it. The Grammys pour gasoline on the fire. And then the Oscars arrive as the grand finale — an annual evening where the most insulated people in America gather together to congratulate each other for their “courage.”

Courage, of course, usually means reading lines someone else wrote about how terrible Donald Trump is.

This year’s Oscar season is shaping up to be no different. Several nominees and industry figures quoted in recent reporting are already warning that the ceremony may become a “fraught political scene,” with anti-Trump rhetoric expected to spill onto the stage. Apparently, the greatest challenge facing these multimillionaires isn’t global instability, terrorism, or economic uncertainty — it’s navigating how to deliver their anti-Trump commentary while wearing couture gowns and standing under $100 million worth of studio lighting.

Forgive the rest of us if we’re not terribly impressed.

The spectacle would almost be funny if it weren’t so predictable. Actors, directors, and producers who rely on entire teams of writers to supply the words they speak in movies suddenly transform into political philosophers when award season arrives. The same people who spend months memorizing dialogue crafted by others begin lecturing the American public about policy, democracy, and morality.

It’s like asking the person who reads the teleprompter to start writing the legislation.

And the result is exactly what you would expect.

A parade of half-informed political takes, dramatic declarations about the fate of the republic, and dire warnings that America cannot possibly survive another Trump presidency.

We’ve heard it all before.

In fact, Hollywood has been delivering the same speech for nearly a decade now.

Remember 2016? The entertainment industry warned that Donald Trump’s election would destroy the country. Democracy would collapse. The economy would implode. The world would recoil in horror.

None of it happened.

In fact, quite the opposite happened. Under Trump’s leadership, America experienced record employment levels, a booming stock market, and a foreign policy that actually deterred adversaries rather than emboldening them.

Then came 2024.

Once again, the same celebrity chorus declared that Trump’s return to the political stage would usher in catastrophe. Once again, the predictions were dire. Once again the warnings were apocalyptic.

And once again, the American voters ignored them.

That’s the part Hollywood never seems able to process.

If these celebrities are as influential as they claim, why do their political endorsements seem to have the opposite effect?

Why is it that every time the entertainment industry unites to lecture the public about Donald Trump, he ends up breaking new electoral records?

The answer is simpler than Hollywood is willing to admit.

The people who run the entertainment industry do not live in the same country as the rest of us.

They live behind gates. They live with private security. They live in neighborhoods where the problems facing ordinary Americans rarely penetrate.

Illegal immigration? Not an issue when your property is guarded and your schools are private.

Crime? Not when you have security details and surveillance systems that cost more than most Americans earn in a year.

Economic anxiety? Not when your last film paid you eight figures.

Hollywood has spent so long living in its own bubble that it mistakes applause from fellow celebrities for approval from the country.

The truth is that most Americans view these award show speeches the same way they view the commercials between them: something to ignore while waiting for the show to move on.

And even that might be generous.

Television ratings for award shows have been falling for years. The public’s appetite for political lectures delivered by people who pretend to be superheroes for a living is declining rapidly.

It turns out that Americans prefer authenticity to performance.

That reality explains the political disconnect as well.

While celebrities gather in ballrooms to criticize Trump, the rest of the country has been watching the results of his policies.

They’ve seen adversaries pushed back rather than appeased.

They’ve seen American energy production expand rather than shrink.

They’ve seen economic policies that prioritize American workers rather than global bureaucracies.

And most importantly, they’ve seen a president who speaks to them directly rather than through a carefully scripted monologue.

That authenticity is something Hollywood struggles to replicate.

Because Hollywood is, by its nature, performative.

Everything is scripted. Everything is rehearsed. Everything is choreographed.

Even the outrage.

Which is why award season increasingly feels less like a celebration of filmmaking and more like an annual ritual of elite self-congratulation.

A group of people who make pretend for a living gathers together to tell the rest of the country how reality works.

And every year the country responds the same way.

By ignoring them.

That doesn’t mean the speeches won’t happen. They will. Someone will step to the microphone and declare that America is at a crossroads. Someone else will warn that democracy is hanging by a thread. Someone will inevitably insist that the world is watching and judging us.

But the American voters have already answered those speeches.

They answered them in 2016.

They answered them again in 2024.

And they’ll likely answer them again the next time

Hollywood decides to confuse applause with authority.

Because at the end of the day, the Oscars may determine who gets to hold a gold statue.

But the American people still decide who holds power.

And that’s one award Hollywood can’t script.