A low-budget documentary helped end SeaWorld's killer whale breeding programme
Blackfish, a 2013 documentary about a captive orca named Tilikum, earned only about two million dollars at the box office. Its impact was far larger: bands cancelled park concerts, Pixar changed the ending of Finding Dory, SeaWorld's share price tumbled, and in 2016 the company announced it would stop breeding orcas.
Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite began the project after the February 2010 death of trainer Dawn Brancheau, doubting the explanation that the orca had been provoked by her ponytail and sensing there was more to the story. The film traces Tilikum from his capture off Iceland in 1983 through alleged bullying by other orcas at Sealand of the Pacific, arguing that capture as juveniles and a lifetime of performing and breeding in tanks drove captive whales to aggression. Former trainers such as John Hargrove appear, and the film disputes SeaWorld's claim that orcas live as long in captivity as in the wild.
It premiered at Sundance on January 19, 2013, and Magnolia Pictures and CNN Films released it that July. Critics were enthusiastic, with a 98 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, and it earned a BAFTA nomination. Not everyone who took part was happy: some former trainers said their views were misrepresented, and Brancheau's family said the film did not reflect her experiences.
SeaWorld refused to take part and called the film inaccurate propaganda, launching rebuttal websites. The response sometimes backfired: when an Orlando newspaper poll suggested the film had changed few minds, 180 of the 328 votes turned out to come from a single SeaWorld address. Politicians in New York and California proposed banning orca captivity, and Southwest Airlines ended a 26-year partnership in 2014.
The financial damage mounted. By November 2014 the company's stock was down 50 percent from a year earlier, and chief executive Jim Atchison resigned that December. In 2015 SeaWorld said it would end orca shows in San Diego, and in March 2016 it ended its breeding programme and began phasing out orca performances, saying society was changing and so was the company. In 2018 SeaWorld and Atchison agreed to pay more than 5 million dollars to settle federal charges of hiding the film's impact from investors.
Source: Blackfish (film)
