Conservatives Have Good Reason to See This Movie

“Kingsman: The Golden Circle” is one of the films propelling the Hollywood box office to a comeback after a disastrous summer.

With the sequel opening to nearly $40 million last weekend and “It” now standing at a gross of well over $200 million, the September box office is on pace to possibly set a record for total gross, according to Box Office Mojo.

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One of the reasons “Kingsman” — starring Colin Firth and Taron Egerton (pictured above) — may be having such universal appeal with audiences is that there are no political sucker punches, something Hollywood is growing increasingly fond of but which audiences clearly don’t like.

Director Matthew Vaughn revealed in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly there were actually originally two references to President Donald Trump in his film that he decided to scrap for good reason.

“In the edit, we toned down some stuff,” Vaughn said. One reference included a comment by the film’s villain (played by Julianne Moore) that she wanted to host “The Apprentice,” Trump’s old reality show.

“We actually took out the ‘Apprentice’ line,” Vaughn said, “because we felt it was too close to the bone. I think America’s going through a pretty interesting and rough ride at the moment and I wanted this movie to be escapism. And that means not suddenly having half the audience going, ‘That’s not cool, that’s not funny!’ as the other half is cheering.”

“I wanted this movie to be escapism.”

Vaughn also toned down the production design to remove another reference to Trump. “We were building a White House Oval Office in the style of Trump Tower. We were making it in all gold and ‘blinging’ it up. This was in May of 2016, and then I had an inkling. I remember saying to my American production designer, ‘Trump might win, you know? Would this be as funny if Trump won?’ And he was like, ‘Trump will never win.’ And I said, ‘You know what, I have a weird feeling he might. So let’s build a normal Oval Office and scrap the Trump version.’ I think my instinct was right. If you go too far — if movies get political when they’re meant to be fun — then it weighs everything down a bit too much,” he explained.

At a time when liberal celebrities increasingly insult fans who vote differently than them, Vaughn should be applauded for accepting that there is a diversified audience for his film — and that he wants his work to be escapism for everybody, not just those who think one way.

(photo credit, homepage image: 20th Century Fox)