The conservative creator and co-director of last year's hit documentary “2016: Obama’s America” is urging moviegoers to send a message to not just filmmaker Michael Moore but Hollywood's liberals by voting at the box office.
It’s not due in theaters until next year's Fourth of July, but Dinesh D’Souza says that he wants his next movie — "America," a look at "the meaning of what America the country was, is and should be" — to replace Moore’s “Farenheit 9/11” as the highest-grossing political documentary of all time.
“Farenheit 9/11" brought in $119 million domestically in 2006, and $226 million worldwide.
Needless to say, D'Souza is no fan of Moore's.
"Despite their questionable reasoning, in the past, Moore’s films have been considered works of Swiftian genius by some in Tinseltown," he writes in a guest blog on TheWrap.
Also read: It's Time for the American People to Dethrone Conspiracy Nut Michael Moore
"I don’t think this is because my friends in Hollywood are especially dumb; I suspect it is because they have blindly approved of Moore’s leftist politics and were rewarding them for ideology instead of craft, excellence and a compelling and truthful story."
He adds: "Right now, 'Fahrenheit 911' is the most successful political documentary of all time, and '2016' is second — and I have a plan to change that and begin the long process of reforming the culture of Hollywood in the only way the average American can: by voting with their feet."
Doing that, D’Souza writes, entails going to see his upcoming "America," which says “will teach liberal elements in Hollywood and Michael Moore a lesson in order to compel them to acknowledge the voices of the majority of Americans.
“By going to your local theater and watching ('America') and making it the all-time box-office champ in the political documentary category, you will have a chance to remind extreme liberal elements of Hollywood and Moore that they are servants of the interests and tastes of we, the American people and not dictators telling us what we should like."
D’Souza’s “2016: Obama’s America” is the No. 2 political documentary on the all-time list. He co-wrote and directed the film – a look at what to expect were President Obama to be elected to a second term — with John Sullivan.
The film struck a chord with conservative moviegoers in the months leading up to the presidential election and went on to become 2012’s highest-grossing docu with $33.4 million for distributor Rocky Mountain Pictures.
Also read: '2016' Co-Director Dinesh D'Souza: 'How I Earned Obama's Rage'
It was snubbed when it came to the Oscars however, and failed to earn a nomination. Gerald Molen, the producer of “2016: Obama’s America” (and before that, an Oscar winner for producing "Schindler's List") sent a letter to then-AMPAS president Hawk Koch, blaming the presence of Moore on the Academy’s Board of Governors and a liberal bias for his film’s failure to be nominated.
He also pointed out that it made more than three times what the docs that were nominated had at the box office combined.
“Of course films aren’t nominated for Oscars for their popularity nor should they be,” D’Souza writes, “but for many years there has been a pattern of the Academy ignoring the work of those who don't toe a liberal line in Hollywood in order to attempt to discredit, discourage and ultimately defund them.”
Also read: Obama Campaign Fires Back at Dinesh D'Souza, Fact-Checks '2016'
In July, Moore lost to Alex Gibney ("Taxi to the Dark Side") in an election for one of three Documentary branch seats on the Academy’s Board of Governors.
“The Academy may have shown Moore the door,” D’Souza writes, “but systemic problems remain, namely an enduring culture of extreme radicalism in Hollywood that makes it virtually impossible for mainstream films like ‘2016’ to be judged fairly.”
His answer: make it clear via the box office that the Academy is out of touch with mainstream.
“It may be true that Hollywood is about ideology,” D’Souza wrote, “but it's also about the almighty dollar and the only way to correct its ideological blind spots is to send messages to its collective pocketbook."