Over the weekend, “The Woman King” easily won the box office battle. Better yet, the historical action film was a hit with fans who gave it an A+ CinemaScore. But all that goodwill still wasn’t enough to prevent social media backlash.
In the leadup to the release of “The Woman King” in theaters, a social media campaign to boycott the film grew. This was because many believed the film, from director Gina Prince-Bythewood and star Viola Davis, was going to skip over some of the actual history and focus on one aspect of the story. For those who haven’t seen the film, “The Woman King” tells the story of the Kingdom of Dahomey and the women warriors who defend the nation. Of course, the marketing for the film focused on Davis and her female warrior compatriots, leading some to believe the film would gloss over the fact that the Dahomey people in the 19th century were heavily involved in the slave trade.
However, as seen in the actual film, there is plenty of drama surrounding the slave trade and the Dahomey people’s involvement, with Davis’ character particularly upset. So, in a new interview with IndieWire, director Prince-Bythewood explained how frustrating it is for a social media campaign to boycott her film when it’s based on falsehoods.
“I learned early on you cannot win an argument on Twitter,” Prince-Bythewood said. “And I know all of that is going to go away once they see the film. There’s an assumption we’re not dealing with [the slave trade issue] and we are dealing with it. So I have to live in that confidence. They’re going to see the film and they’re going to see it.”
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As mentioned, despite the calls for a boycott on social media, “The Woman King” did go on to earn almost $20 million at the box office. So, this could just be yet another example of social media outrage that doesn’t translate to any real-world action. We’ll have to see how the film continues to perform over the coming weeks.
“The Woman King” is in theaters now.