A Hollywood Reporter contributor who tried to mock outspoken actress Gina Carano for a supposed box office failure got a hard reminder that social media is a two-edged sword after Carano hit back hard.
Journalist Richard Newby was attempting to pile on to a Twitter post criticizing the former “Mandalorian” star with the “news” that her 2022 production “Terror on the Prairie” supposedly took in less than $1,000 at the box office.
Of course, the only problem is that the movie was released last summer exclusively on the DailyWire+ streaming platform. In other words, there was no “box office” at all.
The issue arose when a Twitter user with the handle @mikedao first wrote Sunday, “A reminder that Gina Carano’s latest movie made $804 at the box office. $804. Not thousands, not millions. $804.”
Newby replied, “I’ll never stop laughing at the fact that she could’ve had her own Star Wars series, toys, books, comics, apparel. She was that close.”
“She didn’t just fumble the bag, she dumped it out, put it over her head and cut off her air supply,” he added.
🤣🤣🤣🤣 I’ll never stop laughing at the fact that she could’ve had her own Star Wars series, toys, books, comics, apparel. She was that close. She didn’t just fumble the bag, she dumped it out, put it over her head and cut off her air supply. https://t.co/PG2yxC8WSw
— Richard Newby – Vote Blue and Save Yourselves (@RICHARDLNEWBY) January 9, 2023
Gina Carano, a former mixed martial arts fighter who doesn’t shy away from controversy, met the challenge head-on.
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“Here is a contributor of [The Hollywood Reporter] who repeatedly joins in an online mob of mostly anonymous accounts harassing me,” she wrote in a Twitter post.
She continued: “Are you aware that we released Terror on the Prairie exclusively on the @realDailyWire & you didn’t know that? Or are ignorance & spreading hate your only purpose here?”
Here is a contributor of @THR who repeatedly joins in an online mob of mostly anonymous accounts harassing me. Are you aware that we released Terror on the Prairie exclusively on the @realDailyWire & you didn’t know that? Or are ignorance & spreading hate your only purpose here? https://t.co/oONbdeqjwK
— Gina Carano 🕯 (@ginacarano) January 10, 2023
Daily Wire host Matt Walsh jumped into the fray, too, replying to @mikedao, “This guy turned replies off because he doesn’t want anyone to point out that the film, Terror on the Prairie, was released exclusively on the Daily Wire. It had one showing in one theater.”
This guy turned replies off because he doesn’t want anyone to point out that the film, Terror on the Prairie, was released exclusively on the Daily Wire. It had one showing in one theater. https://t.co/rw1C9sD03h
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) January 10, 2023
“People are making fun of Gina Carano because her film failed to earn money in places where it wasn’t showing and was never intended to show. You might as well make fun of the Yankees for never winning the Super Bowl,” he continued.
“By the way the one showing was the premiere event where we didn’t sell tickets so I’m not sure how it managed to make even 804 dollars,” Walsh wrote.
The official trailer for the movie is below:
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“Terror on the Prairie” was rated fresh by Rotten Tomatoes reviewers with an 83 percent score. The audience gave it 84 percent, so that’s pretty darn good.
Axios reported in November that DailyWire+, a conservative alternative to entertainment companies like Disney, has over 1 million subscribers, so it was a substantial platform for “Terror on the Prairie” to premiere.
The conservative media company hired Carano after Disney-owned Lucasfilm fired her in February 2021 from the “Star Wars” series “The Mandalorian” screening on Disney+ over social media posts defending conservatives, the New York Post reported at the time.
She tweeted that the same type of hatred stirred up in Nazi Germany against the Jews could happen in the United States.
“Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews,” she wrote.
“How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?” Carano asked.
The context was in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol incursion and the harsh rhetoric President Joe Biden employed in his inaugural address clearly aimed against supporters of former President Donald Trump.
The FBI had also started rounding people up, many for engaging in non-violent protest on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6.
The Biden DOJ has continued to make arrests up to the present, over 900 to date, but the agency has identified thousands more who could be charged, according to NBC News.
Carano had the courage to speak out against political demonization and got fired for it.
Thankfully, the DailyWire stood by her.
People like Newby can mock all they want, but conservative/freedom-friendly entertainment production is on the rise, and Carano likely has a great future in it.
