A few years ago, a division specifically catered to black audiences was created under the Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.
In the past few months alone, Hollywood has seen the undeniable advantages of creating movies with a diverse cast. Most recently, the film Girls Trip, a comedy that stars four Black women, had a revenue of $30.4 million on its opening day and later went on to finish first at the box office. The film made about 50% more in revenue than the telecommunications conglomerate Comcast
Christy Haubegger, Head of the Multicultural Business Development for Creative Artists Agency, remarked that the biggest sign of a film's future success with non-white audiences is directly tied to the diversity of the cast, going on to note that the fact "is not a niche at all." Given that moviegoers of color bought 49% of movie tickets in 2016 alone, up from 45% in the previous year, the rising presence of movies with diverse casts is bringing in revenue for Hollywood.
In addition to the growing appeal to black audiences, movies with diverse casts bring in additional revenue from non-Black audiences: the audience for the movie Girls Trip had a 59% black audience, 19% white audience, 17% Hispanic audience and 3% Asian audience. The Girls Trip producer Will Packer expanded on such a success, stating "I love the fact that if this film works, it's going to be a tremendous opportunity for other African American female actresses." He continued, saying "Because people in boardrooms around Hollywood will go, 'Wow they can open a movie, audiences will go see them. This makes economic sense for us.' And of course we all know that's the true driver in Hollywood."
Above all, it's important that Hollywood stays attentive to the desires of its viewers. Recently, Codeblack told fans they would produce a heist, action movie starring the singer Rihanna and the actress Lupita Nyong'o based off a highly retweeted twitter post that had been circulating around the web for three years. Given that black audiences, and non-Black audiences are paying for more movies that reflect diversity, Hollywood might finally see a new wave of diverse movies dominating the box office.
- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-26/hollywood-faces-the-growing-box-office-power-of-black-audiences
- http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/girls-trip-box-office-breaks-r-rated-comedy-curse-proves-power-diversity-1023740
- http://www.indiewire.com/2017/06/diverse-casts-box-office-1201846810/