It has been nearly two months since I suggested to you that to Hollywood tolerance is just not good enough.   If we really wanted to consider ourselves enlightened, we really must go see a gay cowboy romance.   I suggested that there were about 3 million gays in the US and it would be surprising if most did not go see the film.   I also figured there would be a fair number of fag has and "progressive" women who might be cajoled into seeing it.   I predicted the movie would gross around $50 million but I never counted on the volume of advertising promoters did.   There was virtually no venue where you could escape ads for this sure-fire Oscar winner.   I heard radio spots on conservative talk radio, saw TV commercials on, of all places, Fox News, and even macho sporting events were peppered with Brokeback moments.   I know "progressive" women considered it to be a must-see hip film.   And I never even considered that some folks would go see the thing twice, even three times.   Yet my figures were not all that bad.   I said 50 and to date the film has grossed about 72.   It won't be in the theatres for much longer, however, as per screen stats show about 25 people in each theatre showing it now.   Maybe that's the new standard for success in the film industry but it is not a profitable trend.

At last we can stop hearing about this very much non-mainstream film.   Well, we will have to hear all this hype again during Oscars.   But perhaps the film industry has learned its lesson.   Reuters had an interesting postscript for the film.   They consider it to now be part of popular culture.   They looked to the number of jokes and comics it resulted in as indicative of an embrace.   Right!   Just like derogatory jokes about ethnic groups show we have gotten over racism.