RUSH: My friends, the picture looks grim for the big film studios. The Wall Street Journal says this year’s Oscars took place “during one of the gloomiest times for the movie industry in recent memory.”

Paramount lost almost half a billion dollars last year. Sony wrote off almost a billion. None of the movies up for Best Picture made a hundred million dollars. That’s considered the break-even point for major movies. According to a survey by the Hollywood Reporter, 60% of you could not name a single movie nominated for Best Picture.

The Journal lists some reasons for all this. One: fewer people go to the movies because of Netflix, HBO, and other ways of watching. Two: lack of originality. Most big-studio movies are based on comic books, bestselling novels, or old franchises like Star Wars. And three: big stars’ sky-high pay is hurting the bottom line.

Now, these explanations make sense, as far as they go. But the Journal leaves out a huge reason that Big Movie is laying an egg, and that’s politics.

The endless tirades from hard-core liberal actors have turned off millions of their former customers. Hollywood is totally disconnected from much of its audience. And with so many stars suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, that’s not getting better anytime soon.

Liberalism is why so many Americans think that “Hollywood values” just aren’t worth paying to see.  Who wants to be insulted and slapped in the face three straight hours?