Movies Are Becoming Less Woke, and Gen Z Approves
As movies are a staple of popular culture, this year’s box office hits indicate a new shift towards entertainment that is not influenced by leftist ideology.
This summer’s top movie — Inside Out 2 — holds a 96 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, and the film was praised by viewers for its relatability that transcends generational norms. The movie is distinctly family-friendly, with no indication of a woke agenda that’s infiltrated recent films. “I watched with my 12-year-old grandson. I enjoyed it and he said he was interested in the emotions of puberty. Good times and good conversation,” one user wrote.
The movie brought Gen Z back to the movie theaters and suggests a shift in Gen Z’s preferences in entertainment. Gen Z is shying away from the perverted morals that are advertised in the entertainment industry. (READ MORE: Inside Out 2’s Success May Signal the Return of the Movie Theater Experience)
Gen Z and Sex Scenes
A recent study by Talker Research found that 43 percent of Gen Z will turn off a movie when they encounter a sex scene. The survey revealed that Gen Z found sex scenes as “either always or mostly unnecessary and don’t add enjoyment or story enhancement.”
Talker Research also found that baby boomers and Gen Z, despite being over 30 years apart, agree that sex scenes are not necessary in movies. “It’s notable that Gen Z and Boomers are agreeing on this when everything else under the sun — politics, sports, cars, parenting — all that kind of stuff, Gen Z and Boomers could not be further from each other,” Van Darden said, who is the director of media relations for Talker Research.
Inside Out 2, Dune: Part Two, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Kung Fu Panda 4, and Despicable Me 4 are currently the top five movies worldwide in 2024. Cumulatively, these movies generated over $3.6 billion in worldwide sales and boast high ratings in movie reviews. These movies continue to evoke positive responses from audiences, perhaps because of one thing in common: their lack of a woke agenda. On average, the top five movies hold a 91 percent audience score by Rotten Tomatoes.
These box office numbers reflect this return to preferring moral values over obscenity and woke-filled plotlines. MovieGuide reported that the top-performing movies in 2024 “promote strong morals … while more perverted movies, even when they have a strong backing, have sunk.”
The Talker study also cited findings from the Economist that nudity and sex scenes in movies have dipped by 40 percent since 2000. The top five movies do not display sexual content or suggest strong nudity. There is a slight exception in Dune: Part Two, but the movie only “implies fornication” and “brief upper male nudity.” These movies share in displaying vital redemptive elements of forgiveness, restoring what has fallen, and doing the right thing.
A similar study by the University of California Los Angeles found that 51 percent of Gen Z preferred content centered around platonic friendships rather than romance on-screen. The 2023 study also found that 47 percent of Gen Z thought that sex scenes aren’t needed in TV shows or movies.
As media entertainment continues to evolve and advance in different kinds of content, there is hope that Gen Z could change the landscape into one less stained by the left.
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