Iraq War movies are dying at the box office one after another. It doesn't matter if they're brutal expose ("Redacted"), touching family story ("Grace Is Gone"), or high-firepower entertainment ("The Kingdom") — nobody's buying.
People are as sick of Iraq War movies as they are of the whole pointless, interminable war itself. Call it viewer combat fatigue: Bombarded with the war on the net and the news, viewers have chosen to tune out when it comes to Iraq War-related movies. Sure, there are plenty of folk in America who just don't care, especially since most of the public neither has to fight or pay for the war. (All praise the miracle of deficit spending.) But more likely it's due to the intense frustration people feel about the war. Except for the ever-dwindling number of Bush-supporters in denial, everybody knows the war was fraudulently sold to the public and ineptly prosecuted. There is no joy in being reminded of this, especially considering the lack of good solutions to the current quagmire.
Just take a look at "In The Valley Of Elah," by director Paul Haggis. The last two films he was involved with, "Million Dollar Baby" (as writer) and "Crash" (as director), both made money and took home Oscars, so he's the very definition of a bankable filmmaker. Yet people stayed home for this one: "In The Valley Of Elah" grossed about $6 million in the United States, compared to $54 million for "Crash" and over $100 million for "Million Dollar Baby."