Hit tentpole films in the action genre like The Avengers (2012) and Dark Knight Rises (2012) have little trouble finding viewership. But elsewhere in the movies, Hollywood struggles to find success in other genres that cater to diverse audiences.
The black film genre is particularly hard to locate.
Back in the day, when Hollywood or a black independent made a black movie, there was a clear understanding of who the movies were for and what sensibilities the group shared. But now, the “African American” experience is broadening.
There are first- and second-generation Caribbean and African immigrants, multiracial blacks who identify equally with their white (or Asian or Latino) and black parents, and upper/middle/lower class groups.
In 2012, if you’re simply making a movie for “black folks in general” it’s likely you won’t find anyone besides your mother and your two friends who can relate to your “African American” slice of life.
That is, unless you have a market in mind.
Tyler Perry has found a niche with the Black Christian audience. His films center around deep-rooted family values; little to no profanity, violence, and sex; and a strong religious message. T.D. Jakes as a producer seeks a similar market.
This niche audience counts at the box office.
The Sony Tri-Star picture Sparkle (2012), which starred Whitney Houston, Carmen Ejogo, and Jordin Sparks made just $11.6 million in its opening weekend, compared to Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection’s $25 million opening weekend haul earlier in the summer.
Though it worked as a film, Sparkle, a remake of a 1974 film of the same name, had a less defined market. Do young people really want see a remake of a 70s film? Are older audiences interested in the same film they watched 35 years ago?
In addition to his innovative mode of storytelling, Tyler Perry’s success boils down to knowing his audience and making films they enjoy. He found an audience that was underserved in motion pictures and gave them a reason to visit the theater on Saturday nights.
Black films have multiple underserved markets. The challenge comes in finding out what they are and marketing to them in a way that sustains a connection. The most obvious place to start is with the lack of diversity in black movies.
Black American films pretty much exclude the African or Caribbean immigrant or native experience.
Films sometimes include a black character/group who always talks about Africa (Sister Act 2, Menace II Society, School Daze, Bamboozled). A hardly watched film Wonderful World (2009) starred Sanaa Lathan attempting an African accent.
But besides ridiculing the black African/Caribbean experience or having others speak for them, the standard black film lacks a true vision of racial/ethnic diversity.
A growing black immigrant population would flock to movies that highlight their groups in insightful ways. For young black immigrants, there is a large expanse between Black Hollywood and Nollywood. A bridge that connects the two cultures in a hybrid genre would serve an untapped market.
What black film doesn’t need is another Hollywood remake. It needs filmmakers and writers with visions about what new genres of black film can entail.
It welcomes creatives who are willing to collaborate to bring the varied experiences of a diverse group of black people to the spotlight.
It’s amazing how the diversity thing has turned its heard on black folk. Sometime ago institutions in America used diversity to include a few black folk. But black folks themselves never emphasized their own diversity.
Now when we talk about diversity in America, we talk about people of other ethnic groups, who for example never suffered the same mishap as black folks in America. We talk about Women, Gays, Mixed Race, etc. The problem is that these groups have largely taken away from black advancement in whole which had the purpose of bringing black folks as a result for having been enslaved for centuries.
Why? Because the majority of these groups that are fighting for equal opportunity and white – who are so privileged in so many other ways than the poverty, hopelessness and disenfranchisement that most black folk suffer.
Putting the diversity within blackness may give us the breath and width to command probably our little share of the cake which for the last two decades we have ignorantly lost to the Women (mostly white women), Gays (mostly white folk) and even those mixed folks who grew up in white homes (with white privileges).
In film, black can only gain a wider reception in the black community if it began to express the sensibilities of the diversity withing blackness.
Are you saying mixed race black folk aren’t black enough?
This is a truth that black folks never acknowledge by racism exists in every community. As a mixed race, black folks never accepted me. I submitted once a black film with only black actors but in all degrees and the movie was returned to me saying that it was not black enough. I am myself mixed like Obama. I guess i’ll have to be president to be called black or homie…
;))
Blacks are as racist as whites, or asians. Actually every human sub-category has forgotten that we are all from the same race.
Stay in touch.
Many mixed race black folk are – some are certainly not. And I don’t care how academic you would wonna get on this, but if you had a white parent, grew up in a white home and had white privileges (even if half), your story is a whole different ball game from what the majority of black folk go through every day- and you shd acknowledge that.
When you do then you wouldn’t be so swollen headed about how you got into Princeton – then you could understand why you got in there and why some black folks, born in America, just as smart as you, but without that light skin & (half of) white privileges, never and would never have such an opportunity.
Black people really need to stress their own diversity – African, African American, Caribbean, etc. This would be very pleasing to see in film, when black folk of different creeds come together on the screen! Great post!