Entertainment
Inside the rise of the conservative movie industry behind 'Reagan,' 'Am I Racist?'
To say “Am I Racist?” wasn’t designed to win over Hollywood would be putting it very mildly. Produced by the Daily Wire and fronted by conservative commentator Matt Walsh, the documentary takes a “Borat”-style comedic blowtorch to progressive ideas about systemic racism and diversity training programs. When the film opened in more than 1,500 theaters in September, many mainstream critics simply ignored it, and it received little coverage in traditional media outlets.
Yet in a climate of intense political polarization, “Am I Racist?” managed to strike a chord. Even as many on the left dismissed it as offensive and unfunny, the movie opened in the top five at the box office and went on to earn more than $12 million, making it the highest-grossing documentary of 2024.
The picture’s success was hardly an isolated blip. In recent years, filmmakers catering to conservative audiences have been finding new ways to bypass Hollywood and connect directly with viewers they feel the mainstream has overlooked. Angel Studios’ “Sound of Freedom,” a faith-based thriller centered on sex trafficking in Colombia, cracked the top 10 at the U.S. box office in 2023, grossing $250 million worldwide to become one of the most successful independent films of all time.
More recently, the presidential biopic “Reagan” became a sleeper hit last year, pulling in $30 million — nearly doubling the box office of “The Apprentice,” a scathing drama about the rise of Donald Trump that struggled to find a large audience despite months of buzz and festival screenings. (To be fair, the Dinesh D’Souza documentary “Vindicating Trump” also fizzled, grossing just $1.3 million, suggesting that Trump fatigue may have been a factor.)
Penelope Ann Miller and Dennis Quaid as Nancy and Ronald Reagan in the sleeper hit “Reagan.”
(Ron Batzdorff / Rawhide Pictures)
Mark Joseph, the producer of “Reagan,” sees the success of movies like his as a wake-up call for the traditionally liberal-leaning industry. “Why set out to intentionally leave half the country behind? It makes no sense,” Joseph told The Times via email. The film’s earnest approach to the 40th president, played by Dennis Quaid, garnered little love from critics — “Reagan” earned an 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes — but its release leaned on alternative marketing strategies, including promotion on podcasts hosted by Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson and Megyn Kelly. “The fundamental question we have to ask ourselves is: Are we making movies for each other or for the audience?” Joseph said.
The Daily Wire has emerged as one of the most ambitious players in this space. Founded in 2015 by right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro and producer Jeremy Boreing, the company expanded into film in 2021 with “Run Hide Fight,” a school-shooting thriller that found an audience through the company’s direct-to-subscriber platform, Daily Wire+.
Since then, the Daily Wire has released projects like “What Is a Woman?,” a documentary challenging progressive views on transgender identity, and “Lady Ballers,” a satirical comedy about sports and gender. Its upcoming fantasy series, “The Pendragon Cycle,” signals its ambitions to expand into new territory, with a focus on epic storytelling rather than overtly political themes.
With Trump preparing to begin his second term as president, the cultural and political winds appear to be shifting in the direction of content that appeals to conservative audiences. At the same time, traditional studios and streamers are already exploring ways to tack toward those right-leaning viewers — or at least avoid alienating them. (Despite Trump’s impending return to office, political speechifying was conspicuously absent at the recent Golden Globes.)
The Times spoke with Boreing, Daily Wire’s co-chief executive and the director of “Lady Ballers” and “The Pendragon Cycle,” about what he sees ahead for the conservative film movement and how Hollywood might respond. The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
“Am I Racist?” became the highest-grossing documentary of 2024 despite being largely ignored by traditional media outlets. What do you think drove its success?
We would have liked some reviews. For one thing, you can’t overstate the power of the Daily Wire machine to market to an underserved audience. We spent millions on [marketing] and leveraged our own promotional channels, which are worth many millions more. We’re the best in the world at talking to our exact audience online. Conservatives have rightly observed that there’s very little of this kind of content for them. If there is a political documentary, it’s almost certainly going to be the other side that puts it forward.
A scene from “Am I Racist?,” the top-performing documentary at the box office in 2024.
(Daily Wire)
People also root for us. They see us taking on forces arrayed against half the country on their own turf, not just putting something on our streaming platform but releasing it in theaters. A lot of people came to see “Am I Racist?” not expecting much but glad that somebody was taking that position. And the film was good. Matt Walsh is an enormous talent. A decade ago, the left had great comedians who could do that kind of work, but victory made them weak. Those muscles atrophied, leaving a huge opportunity for someone like Matt.
When the Daily Wire first decided to enter the entertainment business, what was the driving idea behind that move? How did you see films advancing your mission?
Ben Shapiro and I met on a movie deal, so creating culture was always a part of our vision for the Daily Wire. But we didn’t have a clear road map. We were all L.A. guys from the Andrew Breitbart school of “politics is downstream from culture.” At the time, I was running Friends of Abe, which was an open-secret group of around 2,800 Hollywood conservatives. In 2020, we realized we’d already built much of the infrastructure in terms of production savvy, high-level marketing and an SVOD [subscription video on demand] platform for our podcasts. What we hadn’t done was produce films.
From a philosophical point of view, I’ve always pointed to the fact that Barack Obama couldn’t have been elected in 2008 as a Democrat if he supported gay marriage, and by 2012, he couldn’t have been reelected if he opposed it. Such a radical shift in values wasn’t achieved politically — it happened culturally, largely due to the success of “Will & Grace.” Culture has the power to set the Overton window [range of acceptable discourse] for politics, and we’ve always wanted to be creators, not just critics, of culture.
Some of your projects, like “The Pendragon Cycle,” don’t outwardly appear to be political. Where does politics fit into the vision you’ve laid out?
Politics is a consideration but not the most important one. We’re not afraid to be political. We own our biases very openly. “Lady Ballers” is a comedy, but it’s a very opinionated comedy because I wrote and produced it. But other projects, like “Terror on the Prairie,” “Shut In” or “The Pendragon Cycle,” the biggest bet we’ve ever taken — they’re notable for what they don’t say rather than for what they do. They’re not values-first films.
Daily Wire’s other productions include “Lady Ballers,” pictured.
(Daily Wire)
Obviously, we wouldn’t make content that our audience would oppose on some philosophical grounds. But conservative audiences, like anyone else, don’t just watch things based on philosophy. They don’t want films that spit in the face of their philosophy in the third act, but mostly, they just want to be entertained. That’s what we’re trying to deliver.
Faith-based movies have long been a staple for conservative audiences, but the Daily Wire is carving out a different niche. How do you decide which stories to tell, and what makes something feel like the right fit for your brand and audience?
I would say part of the defining philosophy of the Daily Wire is that we’re not cynical. We try not to make cynical plays. When we do, they always bite us — which, as a religious person, I take as God reminding us, “Hey, remember how you decided not to be cynical?” In our entertainment business, we don’t want to make movies that people want to want to watch; we want to make movies they actually want to watch. We’ve never approached our entertainment as a nonprofit. We’re not saying, “Don’t you want this kind of movie to exist for someone else?” We’re asking, “What do you actually want to see?” If it’s something we’d like to see, that’s usually the most important factor in choosing a project.
How do you see the landscape changing for conservative films under another Trump presidency? Do you see traditional studios and streamers trying harder to compete for these audiences?
I think there are enormous opportunities for companies like the Daily Wire because our audience now feels, for the first time in a long time, like maybe the country isn’t doomed, that history isn’t completely arrayed against them. The Daily Wire has always taken an optimistic position, unlike many conservative media companies. We’ve always said our goal was to fight the left, yes, but also to build the future. Most organizations fighting the left lean toward despair, while most future-building is done by the left. The Daily Wire walks the line between both. The next chapter is ours to write.
Do I think Hollywood studios might try to compete for that audience again? I hope so. I’ve said many times, the best success for the Daily Wire isn’t becoming Disney — it’s for Disney to become Disney again. I’d count it the victory of a lifetime, for the country, my values and our business, if Disney went back to serving the entire audience, not just a faction. Competing for their dollars forces them to be competitive, and we’ve done that.
I do think things will change. The business and our strategy will have to evolve. I’m not trying to plan with Matt Walsh the “next anti-woke documentary.” Woke-ism isn’t gone, but it’s on the ropes. I don’t think that’s where the appetite will be in 24 months. We have to keep surveying the landscape, thinking about the best opportunities to represent our audience and create content they actually want to see.