Much is made about online cancel culture, but that's just people making a lot of noise on the internet and doesn't matter much.

The real cancel culture is when most people simply don't like an actor as much as they used to. If the majority of people like an actor just 10% less than they used to, they take a massive hit to their career. Just liking someone a slightly less means you're just going to watch something else instead. But when a majority of people feel the same way then liking someone a little less means translates into a large percentage of people not watching something. It's not like you are going to watch 90% of a Will Smith movie because you like him 10% less, you either watch a movie or you don't.

Real cancel culture isn't "I HATE THIS GUY SO MUCH I'LL NEVER EVER WATCH ANYTHING HE'S IN!" as portrayed on the internet. The real version is "Will Smith? Meh... there's probably something better to watch."

I don't vehemently hate Will Smith for the slap. But The fact that I'm a little less likely to watch his movies now and the fact that there's always other things to watch means it's unlikely I'll watch another Will Smith movie.

And whatever, he's got lots of money already, it's no big deal if his show business career is over.