US-Houthi War Bombs at Box Office

THE PENTAGON - The Department of Defense's (DOD) latest live-action war, "CTF 153: Horton Hears a Houthi", opened on January 12 to dismal reviews and low box office numbers, marking one more setback to the Pentagon Expanded Universe (PEU) franchise.

Pentagon planners hoped an international cast featuring Norway and the Seychelles would help the Houthi war gain traction with the younger viewers still flocking to non-PEU reality wars like 2023's 'Gaza', a massive hit on college campuses. But fans complained of a convoluted plotline in which the country of Yemen is somehow central to global maritime trade while venting online about the absence of a long-awaited China series.

While the PEU experienced global success following 2001's "9/11" and 2003's "Operation Iraqi Freedom", the franchise has fallen on hard times in recent years. Only 2014's "Islamic State" hit respectable box office numbers, despite claims it was essentially a CGI reboot of "9/11." Now critics have panned “Houthi” as a boring rehash of previous PEU vehicles in which the U.S. has to bomb yet another Middle Eastern country to preserve world peace.

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