If you haven’t picked up the fact that I am a fan of The Daily Wire (which has, as far as I know, zero connection to the media empire I write for), let me reiterate: The Daily Wire rocks!

For years, the company has been known mainly as a vehicle for the shows of conservative rock stars like Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, and Andrew Klavan.  But recently it has been expanding its offerings, dipping its toe into entertainment programming without a woke bent. Several key people at the Daily Wire spent time in Hollywood, with varying degrees of success, and it’s clear that they want a shot at producing good entertainment without the woke messaging.

The other day, I wrote a review of their new comedy, Lady Ballers, which I found enjoyable. The DW has also begun producing children’s content as an alternative to the woke shows, although I have yet to dip into it because I am not a kid. Everybody says so except my wife, who isn’t so sure. She keeps saying something about me being a juvenile.

I know the Daily Wire has been making waves, not because they say so, but because I can see with my own eyes that even a company as mighty as Disney is responding to its threat to their bottom line. We already know that conservatives have dented Disney’s reputation, and the company is scrambling to repair it.

But nobody expected Disney to quaver when threatened with competition from a small company like the Daily Wire. Everybody, including me, appears to have been wrong. Disney appears to be worried that its competition could steal its audience not just in the short term but also in the foreseeable future.

I can’t recall when a major corporation like Disney changed its shooting schedule or marketing for a movie in response to a small studio’s challenge.

Disney did precisely that. Right after The Daily Wire announced that it would be releasing a Snow White movie as counterprogramming to the troubled Disney production, Snow White and the Diverse Forest Creatures of Endor, or whatever it will be called.

The controversy around Disney’s Snow White has been pretty fun to watch. As Disney rolled out its initial marketing campaign for the upcoming movie, it became clear that the live-action version would bear little resemblance to the animated one that launched the Disney empire. Snow White would be an empowered girl boss who doesn’t need a man to help her; the dwarves become diverse forest creatures who appear to have wandered in from an Antifa anti-police protest in Atlanta; and it’s clear that the non-White actress who plays Snow White thought the original movie sucked.

There are millions of girls who would die to get a chance to play Snow White and yet this insufferable unlikable brat Rachel Ziegler who hates Snow White got cast to play the character. Weird… weird… pic.twitter.com/w3FjdBiDSp

— Mr.OnePunchMan (@MrDRockzzz) August 22, 2023

In other words, Disney did the inevitable “updated for the contemporary audience” shtick they have been doing to everything. They are killing off everything good and wholesome and replacing it with The Message.

Into the Disney Snow White controversy waltzed Jeremy Boreing and The Daily Wire. Seeing an opportunity to produce an entertaining version of the story that remained true to the original story, they announced the beginning of their own production.

Disney freaked out.

Suddenly the new Snow White was delayed a year, and Rachel Zegler, who had started the original controversy by dismissing the original Disney Snow White as patriarchal sexist trash, is singing a new tune, and a much different one. 

“The cartoon is so beloved. It was the first feature-length cartoon movie. It won honorary Oscars. And all these amazing things that happened for that film are the reason that you and I get to sit here today, because it made Disney what it is. Obviously, that’s come with a lot of pressure that I’ve put on myself. Much like “Hunger Games,” there’s a very dedicated group of people who love Disney cartoons. I’m one of them. I love everything that the Disney Co. has put out in the past 100 years.”

Suddenly, Snow White is iconic, not outdated and sexist.

Is Disney worried that The Daily Wire is going to put them out of business? Of course not. Disney can spend as much producing one Marvel movie as Daily Wire rakes in over a year. Its deep pockets give it a cushion and time to recover.

The same could be said of Budweiser and Bud Light, though, and as that controversy has shown, even iconic brands can be hurt so badly that they may never recover. Modelo and Yuengling can tell you how nice it is to be on the other end of that kind of brand shift. If, in January, somebody told you that AB InBev would be panicking about Bud Light’s demise, we all would have laughed.

Things change, occasionally quickly.

Still, we know from all this that The Daily Wire is over the target and delivering on its promises. As a fan, I am very pleased to see this.

I contacted The Daily Wire to get their take on all this, and they were justifiably proud. A spokesman sent me this:

“Disney’s rapid change of course is encouraging because it shows the kind of impact we can have when we apply the right kind of pressure. Our only hope for taking back the culture from the Left is to build alternatives that force these institutions to have to compete for conservatives’ business again.  Though the fight is far from over, these wins should serve as encouragement to all conservatives that victory in the greatest cultural battles of our time is possible if we stay the course.”

Will The Daily Wire succeed in using the opportunity provided by the decline of the Hollywood behemoths to become an iconic study in its own right?

Right now, it is impossible to say, and if history is a guide, the chances are low but not zero. Doing great entertainment is, contrary to how it looks, very hard. Ask any aspiring actor or novelist how easy it is to succeed in their crafts.

But inevitably some do succeed, and it’s clear that the current crop of companies at the top of the heap are creatively played out. If The Daily Wire can strike it big with a hit, two or three, they will have a strong foundation to build a media empire.

I wish them luck!