Mainstream media may prop up the pro-LGBTQ action movie Monkey Man as the best thing since sliced bread, but numbers don’t lie and the Jordan Peele-produced film has proven to be nothing more than a disappointment at the box office.
Lead actor Dev Patel, who also co-wrote and directed the film, promoted Monkey Man declaring, “For me, this is an anthem for the underdogs, the voiceless and the marginalized,” making allusion to India’s transgender community.
He added, “Together they wage this war for the good and the just, and for me, I really wanted to include the hijra community, the third gender in India,” explaining that, at it’s core, Monkey Man is “a revenge film about faith.”
“For me, you know, it’s become rigid over time. And you look at the old carvings in these temples in India and, like, the freedom, the sexuality, all of it, the philosophy was so ahead of its time.”
Woke mainstream media outlets have been praising Monkey Man solely for the fact that it features transgender representation — not a surprise after Patel openly promoted it as a pro-LGBTQ action film.
In her article titled “The radical impact of Monkey Man’s transgender heroes,” GQ’s Lucy Ford writes, “The Hijra, to put it plainly, kick ass. They wield knives, hurl axes, throw explosives in goons’ faces and spin the drop-kick counter off its wheels.”
“To give the transgender community such a prominent role, and one that focuses on their bravery and agency rather than their suffering feels radical in a cultural landscape that is becoming more and more dangerous for trans people,” she would further explain.
With an article highlighting Patel’s interview about the film featuring India’s transgender community, Hannah Gearan writes for woke ScreenRant, “Including the hijra community is also vital for a high-profile action movie such as Monkey Man. Though representation of the LGBTQ+ community in the media has vastly improved in recent years, there are still very few action films that include transgender characters.”
“By including multiple trans and gender non-conforming roles, Monkey Man makes strides towards this representation while also introducing audiences to a subculture in India with which they may not be familiar,” she adds, later noting that Monkey Man‘s “representation effort is admirable.”
Los Angeles Times’ Katie Walsh notes, “Patel’s plot relies on sexual aggression toward women as a moral cheat sheet while also using the same exploitation as a cheeky visual backdrop — a trope that can often be a trap.”
“’Monkey Man‘ is far more successful at exploring sexuality in the genre via a group of transgender women who teach the Kid how to harness his pain into power,” she then points out, mentioning that Patel’s character is taught the ropes by the “incredibly compelling” Vipin Sharma, who plays a transgender woman named Alpha in the film.
In an article for woke CinemaBlend, titled “‘This Is An Anthem For The Underdogs’: Dev Patel Talks Including The Trans Community In Monkey Man’,” Riley Utley writes, “It’s a fantastic film with LGBTQ+ representation.”
“It’s wonderful to hear that so many have felt seen by Monkey Man, and that they found the trans representation in the film touching,” she would later add.
As much as Patel and Peele attempt to use Monkey Man to inject social commentary and represent transgender ideology, the film has not quite been able to represent a solid box office debut.
Per information collected by Box Office Mojo, the Jordan Peele-produced film was only able to gross $10MM at the domestic box office on opening weekend across 3,029 theaters, which is quite low considering it was predicted to have an opening weekend ranging between $15MM-$20MM — with a reported production budget of $10MM, as well.
David Ayer’s The Beekeeper, another revenge film drawing inspiration from the Keanu Reeves-led John Wick series, grossed a domestic $16MM on opening weekend when it made its debut in January of this year.
In its sixth weekend since release, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two pulled in $7,432,361 at the box office and placed itself in the 6th position this week, trailing Kung Fu Panda 4 which managed to gross $7,771,900 in its fifth weekend since release.
Disney’s The First Omen sits in fourth place with $8,353,710 also making its debut this past weekend. The third place goes to Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which managed to gross $9,033,197 in its third weekend since release.
Debuting in second place with a domestic gross of $10,119,435, Monkey Man has got nothing on Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which was able to pull in a respectable $31,203,359 domestic on its second weekend since its theatrical release.
To better illustrate, the very first John Wick released in 2,589 theaters in 2014 and had a domestic opening weekend of $14,415,922 — which, adjusted for inflation, would equate to $18,897,148.
As Breitbart’s John Nolte eloquently puts it in his reporting of Monkey Man‘s box office failure, “There is nothing sympathetic about the transsexual movement. To portray them as underdogs is a total lie, a clown move, and utterly dishonest.”