A satire film intended to send a provocative message about race relations bombed at the box office on its opening weekend. Focus Features' 'The American Society of Magical Negroes' took the 9th spot at the box office last weekend, grossing $1,304,270 while playing in 1,147 locations around the U.S.
In the trailer, protagonist 'Aren,' played by Justice Smith, learns he must put White people's needs before his own so that the secret society maintains their magical powers. White people, when they are uncomfortable, are 'the most dangerous animal on the planet,' David Alan Grier’s character 'Roger' explains to Aren. 'That's why we fight White discomfort every day.
Even critics who were sympathetic to the movie's political message said it failed to deliver. Film critic Carlos Aguilar panned the pic as 'too timid to land any satirical blows.' 'The movie’s predictably speechified resolution, with Aren literally taking the stage to speak his truth, finally renders the sociopolitical critique mild and inconsequential, a disappointing outcome for a premise that had the potential to be truly incendiary,' he wrote in the Times.