Going woke means going broke.

Many companies have learned this lesson the hard way. The latest example is Disney’s remake of Snow White. In its recent first weekend, the film made less than $50 million, a shockingly bad performance for a production costing the mega-company over $250 million.

Why did Snow White bomb? Instead of honoring the original film’s traditional approach to finding love, Disney opted for a revisionist angle. No less a Disney spokesperson than the film’s lead actress, Rachel Zegler, said this about the original film’s romantic dynamics: “I mean, you know, the original cartoon came out in 1937 and very evidently so. There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird!”¹

Zegler followed the odd marketing emphasis by sharing that the remake featured Snow White finding her “true self,” not true love.²

We’ve repeatedly seen Hollywood’s expensive products tearing down what audiences cherish. Instead of honoring what is good, woke Tinseltown undermines it.

There’s a better way forward. Studios can create a well-crafted product that honors our cherished institutions and principles. We’ve seen this with the widely loved remake of the UK TV show All Creatures Great and Small.

Based on a true story, All Creatures boasts no radical ideology, no political posturing, and no screeds against tradition. The gentle show is about a young veterinarian who commends the natural family, doing one’s duty, and living for others over self.

In an age when wokeness has depleted art on a massive scale, Christians do well to support works of quiet beauty like All Creatures. If we do so, perhaps Hollywood will wake up once more to the sleeping giant that is the conservative and Christian market for traditional entertainment.

Whether that happens or not, our world’s greatest work of beauty is not what we watch on a screen; it’s what we practice every day. It’s the grace-powered Christian life, the ongoing demonstration of costly love, deep forgiveness, convictional proclamation, and stable faithfulness.

Let’s teach our kids this: wokeness may leave you broke, but a life of steady godliness produces happiness on earth—and much treasure in heaven.