A majority audience for ‘minority’ films

When the producers of “Drumline” asked 20th Century Fox for more money to make their movie, they made an inspired appeal. Yes, it’s a movie about black college marching bands. Yes, there’s but one non-black actor (and in a minor role). And yes, the movie’s musicians range from Nappy Roots to Trick Daddy. But this is a movie for all audiences!

Fox bought the argument, forking over $20 million. “At first glance, you looked at ‘Drumline’ and said, ‘It looks like an African American movie,’ ” says Bob Harper, Fox’s vice chairman. “But then you look at it more closely and say, ‘Whoa, it really works for everybody.’ ”

Working for everybody is the new battle cry for movies traditionally aimed at minority audiences. As recently as a few years ago, the studios looked upon black and Latino stories as movies targeted at filmgoers from only those ethnic groups. A studio might manage a small profit, but the limited size of the target audience would always curb the returns. But then the teen moviegoers who drive ticket sales began rejecting black-and-white labels. That rapid shift is sparking Hollywood’s hottest phenomenon: movies that star minorities but attract moviegoers of all ethnicities.

“The young audience is much less racially confined than the older generation,” says Tom Rothman, Fox’s co-chairman. “Kids today are much less doctrinaire in the way they see the world.”

Two recent movies dramatize that shift. “Waiting to Exhale” and “Barbershop” are two black comedies with similar box-office grosses. The first film took in $66 million in 1995 and the second movie more than $74 million this year. Yet the parallel numbers actually tell completely divergent stories.

The audience for “Exhale,” an adaptation of the Terry McMillan novel starring Whitney Houston, was 90% African American. Attendance at “Barbershop,” starring Ice Cube as a haircutting entrepreneur, was far more diverse, with non-black audiences accounting for nearly 40% of ticket buyers.

In show business terms, it was a crossover hit.

What changed? The rigid cultural segregation that existed a generation ago has vanished. White teens who once listened to Soul Asylum now follow Jay-Z; African American kids tune in Eminem; and high-schoolers everywhere wear baggy hip-hop clothes and laugh at Bernie Mac.

“It used to be if you showed African American images, you only got African American audiences,” says Revolution Studios partner Tom Sherak. “But the younger audience is starting to see less color.”

The latest entry in the crossover campaign, following “Barbershop” and last week’s urban gangster drama “Empire,” is “Drumline,” a tale of two college marching bands and one talented but rebellious percussionist (Nick Cannon). Facing strong competition from Jennifer Lopez’s “Maid in Manhattan” and a new “Star Trek” sequel, “Drumline” grossed $13 million in its debut weekend, finishing in third place. Fox said 40% of its audience was non-African American.

‘Four-quadrant’ hit

Hollywood’s paradise on earth still remains the “four-quadrant” smash, a film appealing to both young and old, male and female. But reaching all segments of the audience is expensive and, consequently, risky. It often costs more than $100 million to produce a blockbuster such as “Spider-Man,” and mass-appeal titles require an additional $50-million marketing blizzard to entice every demographic constituency.

Crossover movies can be a more attractive investment. Because they rely more on concepts than stars, they don’t cost much. Universal and partner Arenas Entertainment purchased distribution rights to “Empire” for just $650,000, and it has so far grossed an estimated $10.7 million. MGM spent $12 million making “Barbershop,” and another $12 million selling it. Fox Searchlight’s “Brown Sugar” was made for $8 million, and it grossed more than $27 million.

Thrifty production budgets are only the start of the savings for these films. Advertising buyers can cheaply target the core demographic, rather than blow a fortune pitching a movie to all audiences (including many with zero interest in seeing it) by buying pricey spots on such mass-appeal TV shows as “The West Wing.” Want to reach just middle-age Latinas? Buy an ad on Univision’s talk show “El Gordo y La Flaca.” Need young black males? Book a spot on KHHT-FM (92.3 FM). Thanks to tailored marketing such as this, the typical ad budget for an “urban” film is about $10 million, a fraction of the resources committed for the average major studio release.

“That’s why so many people are attracted to making movies for urban audiences,” says Nancy Utley, Fox Searchlight’s marketing chief. She sold “Brown Sugar” with TV spots on “Soul Train,” “The Steve Harvey Show,” “Cedric the Entertainer Presents,” “Girlfriends” and “The Parkers.” “These movies are easily targeted, and the African American audience is generally very reliable in coming out to see the movies.”

So, too, are more and more teens of all races. To broaden the fan base of “Barbershop,” MGM committed a sixth of its marketing budget to MTV. Slowly but surely, non-African Americans turned out. In its first weekend, 85% of “Barbershop’s” audience was black or Latino. By the second weekend, it was 75%; by the third, 70%; and by the fourth, 60%. That crossover surge will make “Barbershop” one of 2002’s most profitable releases.

Universal and partner Arenas had similar wide-appeal success with “Empire,” whose first-weekend audience was 51% Latino, 21% Caucasian and 18% African American. The John Leguizamo movie actually crossed over within the Latino population as well: Just as Caucasian audiences are hardly homogenous, neither are Latinos.

Universal and Arenas drafted different “Empire” trailers for Eastern and Western markets to address regional differences. TV ads in New York and adjacent states, where the vast majority of Puerto Ricans live on the U.S. mainland, featured a scene from the movie of a traditional Puerto Rican meal of roast pork and fried plantains. In California and other Western states, the TV ad’s food was replaced by other footage. To make the film’s music appeal to a broader national audience, Universal added the DMX song “Fame” to both “Empire’s” trailer and soundtrack, even though the song does not appear in the film itself. Universal put the “Empire” trailer on “8 Mile,” further guaranteeing wide demographic exposure.

The strategy worked. Debuting in just 867 theaters, “Empire” grossed $6.3 million in its premiere weekend, with the highest per-screen average among the Top 20 films. The movie performed strongly not only where it was expected (such as Los Angeles and New York), but also in such cities as Boston and Denver.

Not all attempts to broaden an audience are successful. In a reverse instance of trying to cross over a movie to urban moviegoers, Artisan tried to attract young blacks to its much-admired documentary “Standing in the Shadows of Motown,” booking the film into Magic Johnson Theatres in Los Angeles. But the core audience remained older, art-house moviegoers who grew up listening to the music.

Unlike critic-proof action movies that can generate huge opening numbers just by a familiar concept and extensive marketing -- think “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” -- urban movies actually have to be good to succeed. In fact, the crossover audience typically doesn’t buy tickets until favorable word of mouth trickles down, and it is likely to be influenced strongly by reviews. “If a Mexican person tells you this is the best place for tacos and salsa, then you will go there to eat,” says Santiago Pozo, Arenas’ chief executive.

Some other crossover benefits can come from unexpected places. When Jesse Jackson and others protested “Barbershop’s” jokes about civil-rights leaders, a movie just off the mainstream radar suddenly turned up on TV news programs and the front pages of major newspapers. “That controversy,” says Alex Gartner, the MGM production president who supervised making the film, “probably brought us an extra $10 million.”