Fancyarcher
Member
Or Sidney Poitier films, or heck some of the blacksplotation films that were successful with white audiences like Shaft.
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Hollywood operated on a racist premise, moviegoers proving premise wrong to Hollywood
- Thread starter KSweeley
- Start date
Or Sidney Poitier films, or heck some of the blacksplotation films that were successful with white audiences like Shaft.
lightskintwin
Banned
Yeah, but that did exceptionally well. I'm using an example of a modest hit comedy film still outperforming their biggest blockbusters domestically.
Elegant Weapon
Member
I'm really happy about the success of Girl Trip, especially next to it's mostly white competitor, Rough Night, but if you think it changes anything for people of color in Hollywood, keep dreaming
People will say "the only color Hollywood cares about is green" but that's not true. The gatekeepers: the producers and casting agents, are used to doing things a certain way. They already have an idea of what "A list talent" should look like and it's not Tiffany Haddish, it's Scarlet Johansson. It doesn't matter how many flops or underperforming films Scarlett has lead, she's always going to get another shot. The gatekeepers have convinced themselves that Johansson is a huge box office draw even if the numbers don't back that up.
Studios aren't going to start changing how they've done things forever just because their formulas have been proven wrong. They'll double down yet still wonder why the latest action adventure film staring a plucky white kid on a adventure of self discovery didn't perform as expected.
People will say "the only color Hollywood cares about is green" but that's not true. The gatekeepers: the producers and casting agents, are used to doing things a certain way. They already have an idea of what "A list talent" should look like and it's not Tiffany Haddish, it's Scarlet Johansson. It doesn't matter how many flops or underperforming films Scarlett has lead, she's always going to get another shot. The gatekeepers have convinced themselves that Johansson is a huge box office draw even if the numbers don't back that up.
Studios aren't going to start changing how they've done things forever just because their formulas have been proven wrong. They'll double down yet still wonder why the latest action adventure film staring a plucky white kid on a adventure of self discovery didn't perform as expected.
Probably has to do with Bradley Whitford saying he would vote for Obama for a third term. That political message resonates strongly nowadays.
Talking of which, is that film getting a sequel?
lightskintwin
Banned
Yes, they're filming in Marshfield, Massachusetts as soon as Denzel finishes up Roman Israel, Esq.
http://www.patriotledger.com/news/20170707/denzel-washington-to-film-new-movie-in-brant-rock
The diversity of his films' audience has grown over the years, but it's still not reflecting a general audience. https://shadowandact.com/tyler-perrys-talks-his-white-audience-problem/ Which isn't a problem, business-wise, his films are absurdly profitable!
Nice. Love me some Denzel action. I really liked the first film.
Dr. Carroll
Banned
When they talk about "wider audience" they are almost certainly talking about the international film market. Things are a lot more complicated internationally. Get Out made 76 million internationally, which is respectable, and fantastic for its budget, but a bulk of its money came from domestic audiences.
The catch with stuff like Fast and the Furious is the whole "muh established franchise" thing. It's good that films like Fast and Furious exist, but I'd be wary of assuming their success will automatically translate to other films. Especially ones with massive budgets.
The catch with stuff like Fast and the Furious is the whole "muh established franchise" thing. It's good that films like Fast and Furious exist, but I'd be wary of assuming their success will automatically translate to other films. Especially ones with massive budgets.
I think its also a self fulfilling prophecy in a lot of ways. Hollywood don't make movies with mostly black casts and thus movies with mostly black casts never become huge break out hits. Then this idea just perpetuates itself like its gospel.
I wonder how instrumental the success of his productions was in Georgia legislature making a tax credit for filming in state. Now it seems like basically every movie and tv show films in Georgia.
ElBoxyBrown
Banned
lightskintwin
Banned
It's not that, because they do make all Black cast films just low to modestly budgeted ones. They don't make big budget blockbuster genre (science fiction, action, fantasy, etc...) films with predominately Black casts.
andythinkpad
Member
I beg to differ. King Arthur with a very racially diverse cast tanked hard. So my point is with so many movies coming out every year, you can easy find movie success that support your narrative.
andythinkpad
Member
What make you pick Black instead of other minority race?
Asians (or half asians, unless they look 99% white like Keanu) get kung-fu action films. The women get to be a villain or some white girl's best friend. Black people get jovial romps - especially the currently popular standup comedian-come-star (Kevin Hart right now).
Fancyarcher
Member
I'm sure Hollywood views Boo's audience crossover success as being a fluke though, despite what they may read. Hollywood!
lightskintwin
Banned
Who said anything about King Arthur being racially diverse and how it would perform? The point is as much as White lead and predominately White films succeed, just as many bomb or disappoint in the box office.
Yet Hollywood would have you believe that White led or predominately White casts are a safe risk and will give opportunity after opportunity to White actors regardless of their previous box office performances.
Because Black films have been consistently performing in the Box office for decades. There's an actual industry for Black films in America.
Imperial Bishop
Banned
Wigs will be blown off when BP drops
That's a really good point. Incentives probably lowered the cost even more. Free money and the state gets the cool filmed at *insert location* in the credits.
lightskintwin
Banned
War Room, a 2015 Christian film with an all Black cast that are unknowns, performed better domestically than so many bigger budget films.
It made 73.7 million domestically at the box office off a 3 million budget.
It made 73.7 million domestically at the box office off a 3 million budget.
BlazinSkatinAxel
Member
Or Fast Five, Furious 6, Seven, F8.....
Chaos2Frozen
Member
Good, now apply this to Asian actors please
BlazinSkatinAxel
Member
Remember when Sony leaks said this about Denzel....
http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/leaked-sony-email-denzel-washington-4834071
lightskintwin
Banned
Not really with Black movies.
When the Bough Breaks was critically panned last year and grossed 30 million domestically off a 10 million dollar budget.
Wait until the world realizes Vin Diesel is black.
And Rock.
women will watch anything with morris chestnut
Dwayne is fine. White people think he's white. Black people think he's black. Hispanics are pretty sure he's Hispanic, or at least married to one (I would bet money he is). And Asians think he's like that one 6'+ dude that's in every family.
lightskintwin
Banned
This can be solved if Asian American producers, directors start making films with predominately Asian American casts or Asian American leads to show there's a market there.
The problem right now is Hollywood doesn't believe there's a market yet and there aren't any examples showing there is.
True. I had a homegirl who use to call him Morris Bulletproof Chestnut. LOL
Another example. Meet the Blacks, an independently funded Black film with a budget of 900,000, was critically panned and made 9 million dollars at the Box Office last year.
Dr. Carroll
Banned
It was curious how so many people were angry/annoyed/dismissive that an all-black movie like War Room was a huge success relative to budget because it was a Christian all-black movie. I remember a lot of mockery and deeply negative commentary.
Subpar Spatula
Banned
tearsintherain
Member
To me its an indication of how much more important genre and rotten tomato scores have become. Girls Trip has a 88% on RT and is the typical date night kinda movie.
In fact pretty much all the movies that have flopped this year - Valerian, King Arthur, Sleepless (starring Jamie Foxx), Monster Truck, Baywatch, CHIPS, etc - the most common denominator you can find among them is that critics reviewed the movies poorly. Many star diverse casts, some have black leads, some are small budget, some are huge budget, they cross a lot of genres, but they all were viewed as bad films. Movies used to be able to "hide" and get some draw on opening weekend but even that seems to have mostly vanished.
In fact pretty much all the movies that have flopped this year - Valerian, King Arthur, Sleepless (starring Jamie Foxx), Monster Truck, Baywatch, CHIPS, etc - the most common denominator you can find among them is that critics reviewed the movies poorly. Many star diverse casts, some have black leads, some are small budget, some are huge budget, they cross a lot of genres, but they all were viewed as bad films. Movies used to be able to "hide" and get some draw on opening weekend but even that seems to have mostly vanished.
That is definitely not the lesson to learn from this lol
ElBoxyBrown
Banned
I'm pretty sure the majority of people know he's Samoan at this point. The Rock isn't trying to hide it now.
*raises hand*
I mean, noone would say Italians are people of colour. At least here in Europe.
lightskintwin
Banned
King Arthur, Valerian, and Monster Truck were big budget blockbuster films that bombed
Baywatch was successful though a disappointment.
Sleepless, and Chips were modestly budgeted films that made back their production budgets and will probably break even on the ancillary markets.
They should not be grouped in the same categories.
"critically" ends up usually just meaning white film/culture critics though. not a completely valid metric when we talking blackity black movies IMO (however good or bad they may actually be)
Dash_Riprock
Member
King Arthur had one token black guy and the one token asian guy who of course knows martial arts and is quiet most of the time.
If you consider that "very racially diverse" I don't know what to tell you.
He's Ambiguously Brown, which is enough for most white people.
See also: Keanu Reeves.
Uh, Keanu ain't half.
lightskintwin
Banned
My point. Black films can withstand being "critically" Bad.