Five Liberal Stars Who Have Become Box-Office Poison

When your idea of talking politics is preaching at people and insulting anyone who disagrees with you — that may not help your career much.

In the age of President Donald Trump, many leftist celebrities have become especially aggressive and open about their hostility for anyone and anything not aligned with their extremist views.

Believe Americans should have the right to own a gun? You’re the enemy.

Want to pay a little less in taxes? You’re the enemy.

Approve of anything our current sitting president has done while in office? Enemy.

On and on it goes. Many Hollywood A-listers are sacrificing the good standing they’d built over many years with audiences (and paying consumers) merely to exploit their position in front of the cameras — to insult and berate those who disagree with them.

Once, these folks could star in big movies, smile across the late-night chat circuit, and cash checks for millions. Now they have to settle for lesser roles in films below the radar. Isn’t it time to cool down the political rhetoric and start caring about creativity again?

Here’s a look at five liberal stars who have become box-office poison.

1.) Jim Carrey. Did you know he has a new movie out? Probably not. It’s called “Dark Crimes,” and it skipped theaters entirely in favor of a video-on-demand release. You can find it online for about $7 (that’s right, seven bucks) — do you care?

Carrey was once a major comedic actor. He headlined hit after hit, such as “Dumb and Dumber,” “The Mask,” “Liar Liar,” and “Bruce Almighty.”

That changed, though, when he decided to prioritize politics over performing.

Related: Jim Carrey Releases Another Disturbing Anti-Trump Painting

Carrey hasn’t been able to headline a hit in years. Even a sequel to one of his most beloved films — “Dumb and Dumber To” (that’s not a typo!) — barely made a splash  at the box office.

Since then, he’s had a bit part in an independent film no one recognized — “The Bad Batch” — and is now the lead in “Dark Crimes,” a VOD flick that earned a whopping 0 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from critics. Voting audience members didn’t think much better, as they scored it with 39 percent.

Carrey makes headlines these days more for his bizarre paintings, which target Republicans, than for any comedic efforts. He first made politics his number-one priority in 2013 when he released a video for “Funny or Die,” in which he insulted not only gun owners but also the late Charlton Heston, who had been a five-time president of the NRA during his lifetime.

That same year, Carrey refused to promote one of his own movies because of its heavy gun use.

The last real hit he had was 2009’s “A Christmas Carol.”

Related: Jim Carrey Shares ‘Monstrous’ Painting of Sarah Sanders

2.) Robert De Niro. Once considered one of the greatest actors in the world, De Niro now seems to sleepwalk through his roles. But he shows signs of life when he talks about punching the president of the United States.

Maybe if he were less focused on political tirades, De Niro could pick some better scripts. His filmography as of late is rather embarrassing.

Many of his films today barely get released in theaters. “The Comedian” and “Hands of Stone” both brought in mixed reviews and under $5 million each. Forgettable comedic outings like “Bad Grandpa” don’t do much better and mainly inspire De Niro fans to shake their heads in astonishment.

There’s still a chance he’s got a good performance left in him: He’s reteaming with his “Taxi Driver” and “Goodfellas” director, Martin Scorsese, for next year’s “The Irishman.” But he may have squandered what little goodwill he had left with conservative audience members — and that will only hurt the movie.

Related: Robert De Niro Tries to Ban Trump from His Restaurants

3.) Amy Schumer. She’s only at the beginning of her career, but it already seems to be stalling.

Schumer’s “wokeness” has reached such unbelievable heights that she even criticized her very own 2018 movie, “I Feel Pretty,” because it didn’t cast enough minorities.

Her liberalism has become so insufferable to audiences that even last year’s “Snatched,” which brought Goldie Hawn out of retirement, couldn’t win over people. It barely registered at the box office and both critics and consumers panned it. When you can’t even sell a Goldie Hawn comeback movie, you know there’s a problem.

Related: Amy Schumer Now Faces Backlash from the Left

4.) Michael Moore. Love him or hate him, Moore was once a massive success. He opened documentaries like no other. (Sure, his works were openly manipulative and deceitful, but they made money.)

“Bowling for Columbine” and “Fahrenheit 9/11” were both historic box-office successes. Moore’s career, however, declined after those movies, and once Barack Obama entered office, the director had little to say. He essentially disappeared from the public scene until Donald Trump was elected.

Moore’s opportunism has done him few favors. His Trump documentary flopped, as did his Broadway show about the president.

It seems people are tired of the extreme leftist views of Moore. But get this: He’s still planning a television show that is based around — you guessed it — the commander-in-chief.

Related: Michael Moore Makes Bid to Stay Relevant

5.) Matt Damon. The actor has certainly had his fair share of hits, but lately he’s headlined nothing but duds.

Damon is one of the most outspoken liberals in Hollywood — so it’s tough to imagine that his leftist views and the way he expresses them don’t have something to do with his downward trend.

What’s worse is that Damon has jumped into agenda-driven content more and more; and his career has suffered.

Just last year, he headlined not one but two intensely political films that both flopped big time. The Trump-bashing “Suburbicon” had one of Paramount’s worst openings, and the less said about the eco-preaching “Downsizing,” the better.

Related: Why the #MeToo Movement Is Targeting Matt Damon

Both films had Damon preaching to the media — and it didn’t help sales.

“Suburbicon” couldn’t even bring in $6 million at the box office, and “Downsizing” didn’t even touch $25 million domestically, despite a production budget of nearly $70 million.

This is the man who once headlined major hit franchises like “Ocean’s Eleven” and “The Bourne Identity.” He occasionally finds a hit these days, with such content as “The Martian,” but then he squanders his goodwill with politically charged films pushing aggressive agendas.

Oh, and then sometimes he sports a bad haircut and fights digital monsters. But people don’t buy tickets to those movies, either.

PopZette editor Zachary Leeman can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter.