We're heading into blockbuster season, long designed to part young men from their money using male heroics, computerised wizardry and the requisite side babes. But in a sign that slow-to-react movie studios are betting there's lucre in catering to a wider array of audiences – something television has known for a while – the northern summer of 2017 is bringing alternates to tried and tired formulas, with the likes of Wonder Woman, starring Gal Gadot; Atomic Blonde, with Charlize Theron; and the Tupac Shakur biopic, All Eyez on Me, with Demetrius Shipp jnr in the lead.
There's ample proof that diversity pays off. Women represent over half of moviegoers, and the Motion Picture Association of America has found the number of African-American, Hispanic and Asian regular moviegoers are on the rise, while the number of frequent white moviegoers is declining.
![A movie starring African-American women that did well at the box office: Janelle Monae, Taraji P. Henson and Octavia ...](/web/20170509003800im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/c/b/m/1/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvz51p.png/1494194065695.jpg)
"You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in major positions today in Hollywood that would dispute diversity is good for the bottom line," said Darnell Hunt, a sociology and African-American studies professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. "The question is how do we achieve that, and that is where the inertia lies."
Here are a few box-office myths that could stand to be updated, if not done away with outright.
MYTH No. 1: Films starring black or minority performers don't sell overseas.
WRONG: Hollywood insiders repeatedly, if not quite publicly, brought up this supposed truism during the #OscarsSoWhite uproar. Trouble is, they're increasingly being proven wrong. Hidden Figures, which starred three black actresses, has collected $US60 million ($81 million) abroad (for a $310 million total); Straight Outta Compton pulled in $54 million overseas (on top of $218 million domestically); Moonlight, the Oscar winner made for $2.03million, has taken in about $72 million – with nearly half those sales abroad. The Fate of the Furious, which has a black director and diverse cast, just topped $1 billion globally. "Audiences are clearly showing they want to see people like themselves," Hunt said.
MYTH No. 2: Female-driven movies have a weaker box-office haul.
WRONG: Given that women now make up 52 per cent of moviegoers, according to the MPAA, it should come as no surprise that there's an audience for films with strong female leads. Blockbuster female-led franchises include the Hunger Games films, which brought in nearly $3 billion globally, and the two most recent Star Wars entries, which together have also earned $3 billion and counting. Pitch Perfect, with its ensemble female cast, was a surprise smash in 2012, earning $115 million and plaudits from, of all people, Howard Stern; its sequel took in more than twice that. Yet women accounted for just 30 per cent of lead roles in the top domestic films of 2016 – and that was a recent historic high.
MYTH No. 3: There's no appetite for films that focus on older characters.
WRONG: It's a mystery why Hollywood won't cater more to Baby Boomers, especially given the success of the two Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films, which had seasoned casts and a combined $300 million in sales. But research from the University of Southern California found that of the 100 top-grossing films of 2015, just 11 per cent of speaking parts went to actors 60 and older. This despite a recent study by AARP that found that nearly a third of all moviegoers were 50 and older and that they accounted for three-quarters of art-house visits. And many of last year's top indie films had older leads who also happened to be, gasp, women. Think of Eye in the Sky, starring Helen Mirren, Hello, My Name Is Doris, with Sally Field, and The Lady in the Van, with Maggie Smith.
MYTH No. 4: An R-rating is box-office poison.
WRONG: While PG-13 movies can be a safer box-office bet – according to the MPAA, in 2016 they accounted for 14 of the top 25 films at the box office – recent R-rated smashes show there's an audience for stronger fare. The blood-drenched Wolverine sequel Logan pulled in more than $600 million in fewer than two months. Get Out, a thriller deconstructing racism made for $6 million, topped the box office its opening weekend and has since earned $193 million worldwide. And with a global take of $1.05 billion, Deadpool (2016) has become the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time.
MYTH No. 5: Female-driven comedies are risky bets.
WRONG: This is an echo of No. 2, to which we'll add: Bridesmaids (2011), $390 million globally; Mean Girls (2004), $175 million; last summer's R-rated Bad Moms, pulled in $249 million; and, in an effort to kill the myth once and for all, 9 to 5, the Dolly Parton-Jane Fonda-Lily Tomlin comedy that landed at No. 2 on the box-office chart for 1980. There were underperformers – like last year's heavily trolled Ghostbusters reboot. But as its director, Paul Feig, told The Associated Press, "If a giant tentpole starring men doesn't do well, people don't go, 'Oh well, we can't have guys in movies any more'."
New York Times
0 comments
New User? Sign up