Per Hollywood in Toto, the new film How to Blow Up a Pipeline, which is sympathetic to eco-terrorism, isn’t winning over a lot of audiences despite glowing praise from left-wing reviewers. Its distributor generously booked it into 500 theaters, but so far few are watching; sales are only $600K. That’s right, just over $1K per theater. That’s not even breakeven.
What’s more, How to Blow Up a Pipeline doesn’t even succeed in its main purpose of being effective agitprop for eco-terrorism. Per Reason, “The filmmakers are clearly sympathetic to their cause, to their plight, to their belief in the necessity of violence, and it treats its little army of activist protagonists as heroes. But in the process of psychologizing their decisions, what it demonstrates is that the fringes of the climate activist movement are populated by delusional, too-online, apocalyptically-minded depressives who have chosen to blame fossil fuel companies for their own despondency. There’s real truth to this portrayal of agitated neurotics pointlessly lashing out, but it’s not the rousing call to arms the filmmakers seem to think.” And thank God for that.