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Hollywood embraces today's black films as they enjoy more box office success
Posted: Feb 22, 2008 in Movies
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In the past few years, African-American actors and filmmakers have jumped from the back of Hollywood's bus to front-row seats.
Around 2004-05, except for Will Smith, Halle Berry or Denzel Washington, black thespians were largely relegated to playing the sidekick or villain. The handful of working black directors were mostly making films -- such as Antoine Fuqua's "King Arthur" -- that did little to address the black experience in America. Movies with predominantly black casts were considered box-office poison.
A sea change began in February 2005 when playwright Tyler Perry released "Diary of a Mad Black Woman," based on one of the plays he'd been staging in various venues across the country. It stunned the establishment by grossing $22 million in its opening weekend, trouncing the competition and heralding an untapped audience. Perry went on to make three more films, totaling more than $200 million in ticket sales, and established his own studio based in Atlanta.
"Hollywood had seen the African-American audience in one particular way, and Tyler Perry started making films that didn't necessarily fit that, but were doing phenomenally well," said Karen Michelle Bowdre, assistant professor of media studies at Indiana University. "So they said, 'This is a market we've got to try to capitalize off of.'."
And capitalize they did.
Films with predominantly black casts and black writers and/or directors have become common -- and lucrative -- at the box office. Last year there were 11 such films that collectively grossed more than $400 million, or about $1 out of every $24 spent at the movies.
And the flow is not abating. Several movies with black casts and filmmakers have already been released in 2008, including "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins," co-starring Indianapolis' own Mike Epps.
"Black is very 'in' right now," Epps said. "We've been in as far as I'm concerned, and as far as black people are concerned. But our culture is very, very popular right now. All colors and ages and races are really enjoying (it). And I'm enjoying it."
An early-2008 example was "First Sunday," starring Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan. It was written and directed by David E. Talbert, who like Perry got his start as a playwright. Talbert's own travels frequently led to Indianapolis, where he staged several of his plays at the Murat Theatre, including "The Fabric of a Man" and "What Goes Around ..... Comes Around."
Talbert said that just a year or two ago, he never would have been given a chance to direct "Sunday," his first feature film. But the success of the emerging genre opened doors that had remained closed to him for 15 years.
These films are doing well financially because audiences respond to what Talbert regards as a more honest portrait of black Americans than they've seen before.
"I think there was a period when films were being made in Hollywood in a vacuum and being served to an audience," Talbert said. "It was like the plate was pushed by Hollywood over to them, and they pushed the plate back across the table. But now the plate is being served by people who know the appetite."
Brian Owens, director of the Indianapolis International Film Festival, says black filmmakers have a better notion of what those audiences want to see.
"People want to see themselves represented on screen, and that's always been. That's a natural instinct, to want to see stories about people that are similar to you in some way, shape or form," Owens said.
The portrait of black America that comes through in movies is an evolving one.
For a time, movie studios thought black films meant urban crime dramas. During the 1990s, "Boyz N the Hood," "Menace II Society" and other "gangsta" pictures dominated the scene. African-American actors and filmmakers were getting work, but audiences were seeing only a small slice of reality.
"For a while it seemed like all black-cast films dealt with somebody in the 'hood about to join a gang," said IU's Bowdre. "There were so many films, you'd think that was the only way African-Americans live their lives. Like other populations, we're myriad and we're complex."
Now, comedy is king. Epps' "Roscoe Jenkins" is representative: A rich TV talk-show host returns to his humble roots and butts heads with his wise-cracking kin. Broad physical comedy, volleys of insults and innuendo of a sexual -- though generally PG-13-rated -- nature are other hallmarks of today's black comedies.
Epps said it's not surprising that audiences are clamoring for humor right now.
"We're dealing with a lot. We're living in a crazy world. We got a war going on, the economy is bad. People want to laugh," he said.
But even though these movies are comedic on the surface, there's generally a dramatic undercurrent. Perry's films have set the benchmark with their fluid blend of outrageous humor, spirituality and emphasis on African-American families.
Actor/screenwriter Charlie Murphy, who co-starred in December's "The Perfect Holiday," believes black directors, writers and actors are painting a broader picture of African-American life in movies like his.
"It's about Christmas and a family dealing with the backlash of breaking apart, finding themselves and getting stronger," Murphy said. "That's a central story that could have been cast with any group of actors. It's a story, not an African-American story."
While black film artists clearly are getting more opportunities than ever before, some observers worry about a Balkanization of audiences, with black movie-goers sticking to "their" films while white audiences stay away.
Such a scenario existed during the early 20th century, when filmmakers like Oscar Micheaux made films such as "Harlem After Midnight" that were shown exclusively in African-American neighborhoods, and were virtually unknown outside them.
Black films in this new wave tend to be ultra-low-budget by Hollywood standards, lowering risk and making the bar to profitability an easy leap.
Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations, a firm that tracks box-office receipts, notes that these movies tend to open big and then fade quickly, topping out in the $40 million to $60 million range.
"I think right now that's the cap on these films. But honestly, when you're talking about films that cost at the maximum $15 million -- and that ($40-$60 million) is just the box office, not including ancillary markets -- you're talking about a fortune to be made by these studios," Bock said.
For now, as long as audiences are buying tickets, the surge in black films will continue.
"I think the storytellers are more in tune with what the audience really wants to see," Talbert said. "And it's apparent in the box office receipts."
Notable African-American films of 2008
First Sunday (starring Ice Cube, Tracy Morgan) -- Jan. 11
How She Move (Rutina Wesley, Cle Bennett) -- Jan. 25 (currently in theaters)
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (Martin Lawrence, Mike Epps) -- Feb. 8 (currently in theaters)
Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns (Tyler Perry, Angela Bassett) -- March 21
Mama, I Want to Sing! (Ciara, Patti LaBelle) -- April 11
Top-grossing black films of 2007
Norbit -- $95.7 million
Stomp the Yard -- $61.4 million
Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married? -- $55.2 million
Are We Done Yet? -- $49.7 million
This Christmas -- $49.1 million
While it wasn't a classic or anything, I thought "This Christmas" was a refreshing look at black culture in the movies. It's nice to see a film about and starring a black family living in the suburbs rather than setting it in an urban setting. The family in "This Christmas" was middle-class, and poverty wasn't an issue, nor was scrapes with the law (though one character was on the bad side of a bookie). It was a look Hollywood doesn't often let us have of black culture, and it was a loving and entertaining film for the most part.