Movie boycotts - do they ever work?

“Tropic Thunder” hauled in another $16.1 million this past weekend to bring its two-week total to $65.7 million.

Guess the boycott by several disability groups against the movie for its frequent use of the word “retard” didn’t make a dent in its profits.

But film boycotts can’t always be measured by dollars and cents.

Patricia King Hanson, Executive Editor and Project Director at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films, can’t remember a film boycott which successfully “killed” a movie at the box office. Sometimes, these protests cut into ticket sales in ways that prove difficult to gauge, Hanson says.

The film boycott tradition isn’t new. It dates back to the dawn of movies.

The 1915 epic “The Birth of the Nation” inspired boycotts for its deeply offensive treatment of black characters. The film was later used by the Klu Klux Klan for recruitment purposes.

“It was still an enormous money maker,” she says.

Film boycotts face an uphill battle because they’re usually tied to a niche or single interest group, she says. If a film could tap the outrage of a larger community, they would have a greater impact.

Boycotts prove far more effective when dealing with television shows.

“If people swamp sponsors with negative calls and emails to protest a certain show, that could cause some serious damage,” she says.

Hindu groups boycotted the latest Mike Myers’s comedy, “The Love Guru,” and they claimed their efforts sealed the film’s box office fate. They blasted “Guru” for what they called its demeaning treatment of their religion.

But audience indifference, and a critical scathing rare in its savagery, likely were the root causes of its poor showing.

Movie boycotts don’t just look to impact a movie’s bottom line, says Diane Waldman, associate professor in Mass Communication and Journalism Studies at the University of Denver. They can draw invaluable attention to a particular cause even if ticket sales soar.

Waldman points to the NAACP’s reaction to “The Birth of a Nation,” as well as more recent examples like the gay, lesbian and transgendered community’s outrage over “Basic Instinct” and “Silence of the Lambs” and Arab-American complaints against “True Lies.” Each gave a higher profile to the group in question.

Boycotts throughout film history helped spark the film industry to various self-censorship efforts. Hollywood’s Production Code became reality, in part, thanks to the work done by the Catholic Legion of Decency which identified objectionable material in films.

“Threatened boycotts actually changed and shaped the content of films, as well as what happened to them after they were released,” she says.

Joe Leydon, a contributor to Variety and MovieMaker Magazine, was working at the Houston Post when 1988‘s “The Last Temptation of Christ” hit theaters. He covered the opening-day protests at New York’s Ziegfeld Theatre, and then returned to Houston to find picketers appearing on a regular basis at the theaters showing the film.

“I wonder if the protesters actually called more attention to ‘Last Temptation,’” says Leydon, who blogs at movingpictureblog.blogspot.com.

“Christ” went on to early $8.4 million in its theatrical run.

“On the other hand, I wonder if the media may have underestimated the damage done to ‘The Golden Compass’ by protesters who objected to the allegedly ‘anti-Christian’ content of its source material? “ he asks.

But one thing is clear. The next screenwriter who wants to use the word “retard” in his material will think twice before doing so.

That means the groups boycotting “Tropic Thunder” have already won no matter how rich the movie’s grosses make its stars and studio.

(Photo: The cast of “Tropic Thunder,” a new comedy which drew protests for its repeated use of the word “retard.”)