The Daily Wire is claiming an early marketing victory in its push to compete with Hollywood, saying the trailer for its upcoming film “Confession” has drawn more viewers than the preview for Netflix’s adaptation of “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew” — despite Netflix’s vastly larger social media following.
In a post published on the outlet’s website, Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro said the trailer for “Confession” was released on his personal account and the Daily Wire account, which together have roughly half of Netflix’s 24 million followers. Even so, he wrote, more people have watched the “Confession” trailer than the “Narnia” trailer.
Shapiro also pointed to Paramount’s “Baywatch” trailer, which he said dropped the same day, noting that “Confession” was nearly doubling its viewership. He argued the comparison suggests audiences are hungry for content with substance rather than star power and swimwear.
“People are more interested in our serious examination of Soviet tyranny and human freedom and the value of God in our lives than they are in a film with hot people in bathing suits,” Shapiro wrote, adding that the numbers indicate “people are starved for content with meaning.”
A serious drama with an A-list cast
“Confession,” directed by Czech filmmaker Václav Marhoul, is described as a character-driven psychological drama set during the Stalin era. Marhoul previously directed “The Painted Bird,” which was nominated for the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion.
The cast includes Rob Lowe, James Franco, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Brad Dourif and Nick Nolte. Shapiro said Lowe delivers “the performance of his career,” and highlighted the roster of Oscar and Golden Globe nominees involved in the project.
Lowe told Deadline Hollywood that the film is “an incredible story of the human spirit and its survival against those who would crush it.” Marhoul described the project as a new challenge, saying he had not previously worked in the intimate, dialogue-driven psychological drama genre and sought a sensitive visual approach with cinematographer Peter Menzies.
Shapiro said the film tackles questions about what values people should live for, what it means to sacrifice for them, and how individuals stand up to tyrannical forces that threaten freedom and meaning.
Warsaw premiere and release plans
The film is set to premiere at the Warsaw Film Festival on Thursday, which Shapiro called a significant honor. That will be followed by a one-night run in 100 theaters nationwide, before the movie becomes available on the Daily Wire platform on November 11.
Shapiro framed the release as part of a broader effort by the outlet to produce what he called top-flight filmmaking that is both artistically ambitious and grounded in a defense of Western values. He said not every Daily Wire production will be a serious drama, pointing to action titles like “Run Hide Fight: Infidels” as examples of the company’s broader cultural strategy.
The political argument behind the film
A large portion of Shapiro’s post is devoted to the political rationale for making a film about the Stalin era. He argued that Americans have largely forgotten the horrors of communist regimes, and that forgetting God and the individual was central to the Soviet project.
Shapiro claimed that parts of the American left have “dropped the mask” in their sympathy for communism, pointing to political figures including Zohran Mamdani, Abdel Rahman El-Sayed and Bernie Sanders. He also cited the Democratic Socialists of America’s use of Soviet-style imagery, a claim by the Manhattan Institute’s Stu Smith that nearly half of DSA leadership identify as communists, a December 2025 newsletter from the group’s Red Star caucus celebrating Mao Zedong’s birthday, and commentator Hasan Piker’s stated vision of a “United Soviet Republic” of the U.S.
“The Democratic Party is ingesting this stuff at scale and pretending that the Soviets were fine and good,” Shapiro wrote. “And that is an essential reason why we have to remind people of what the reality of communism was — and is.”
The Warsaw Film Festival premiere and subsequent theatrical run will offer the first real test of whether the trailer’s performance translates into ticket sales and subscriptions for the Daily Wire’s streaming platform.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/hollywood-has-a-problem-it-cant-throw-money-at