Posted by Tieuel Legacy! aka The Devil’s Devil’s Advocate

The Devil’s Devil’s Advocate

“People of Color Like Simple Movies”

I had a deep discussion with a young lady on the Lord’s Day.  It has been said that there are specific reasons why black people don’t go to the movies to support certain works.  I could only chime in and add a few thoughts myself because I was in total agreement.  Although she stated this in a different way (stealth-like if you will), she mirrored what I was thinking.  Black filmmakers are in trouble.  Why?

1)      We’d rather see a bootleg. 2) Historical movies such as Miracles at St. Anna and the cult classic Memento offer too much to think about. 3) Comedy is easier to swallow. 4) Did I mention that we’d rather see a bootleg? 

If this is all true then we will surely see less movies that reflect our people.  We are the ones that BEG to see more people of color on the screen. We don’t realize that it’s a trickle down effect.  The white collared executives are watching from their office buildings and thinking about it as they roll in the canary yellow lambos.  They look for everything that makes money and right now Tyler Perry (the common example now) isn’t enough.  We can even throw in the Secret Life of Bees because every now and then we’ll get feel good stories that will garner attention such as these.  Neither of them are enough.

I only have a few specifics on “The Secret Life…” therefore I’ll have to construct a pseudo production amount.  I’ll guess that this movie was made for $20 million dollars which depending on the deals that the characters received might cover the deal. (reference Hustle and Flow which was made for approx. $7 million…I’ll get back to that one also).  Okay, the film was made for $20 million and it brought in $10,527,799 nationwide on 1,591 Screens (per IMDB.com) within the opening week. It’s safe to say that the movie will recoup the $20 million to make the movie but let’s say that the movie flatlines at $15 million in box office receipts instead.  Producers have lost $5 million.  Oh wait, I didn’t mention that the initial $20 million doesn’t include marketing.

Now you’re saying, “Whoa Devil’s Devil’s Advocate, you didn’t tell us that marketing wasn’t included. How much does that cost?”

I’ll throw out more figures.  We’ll say that 30 second radio and television commercials equal only $1,000. During one 30 minute show in Houston, you’ll see that same commercial 3 times.  We’ll say that each state ONLY has one major city in it…just for kicks. That is $50,000 spent during one television broadcast. Do the same for radio and they spent $100,000. Let’s say that the production company only does this for the week leading into the opening day of the film. 7 days, advertising one tv show and one radio show per day is $700,000.

Needless to say the producers have lost well over $5 million dollars on that project. As I stated in a recent blog, Spike Lee’s “Miracle” was created for $45 million. To date, it has made less than $10 million (I believe).  That’s a hell of a loss.  Yet we want to see more movies featuring us, by us. (Us = people of color) The reason that we don’t see as many now is because there is a lack of support.  Support doesn’t mean that you buy the bootleg from Shareef at the beauty shop.  Filmmakers don’t see that money.  As rich as Tyler is at this point, he’d be a lot richer if bootlegs didn’t exist.  He loses money on each movie that is bootlegged.  It just so happens that he currently has a secure following within church groups and so forth that will continue to go to the movies.  That will last as long as nothing major breaks into the airwaves which might hinder the decisions of the churchgoers (whether he pays his writers or not).  If he happened to marry a man or something extreme then that can all change.  That’s a different story but a few of you know where I’m going already.  Yes WE can be fickle.

I mentioned Hustle and Flow earlier.  With the Academy award attention that it received, many people of color were bothered by it especially before seeing the film.  Most people thought that it was about a rapping pimp; which it wasn’t.  With the success of the film, many figured that more films would be released which would “degrade” us.  Hollywood is going to promote what makes money.  If they lose $35 million Spike’s movie this year, another $5 million on “Secret”, and make $10 million off of another film that gangster moviemaker Raheem Black made this year then which films do you think will be made for next year?  We’ve already proven that we’re not going to see a story on our historical Buffalo Soldiers.  We’re telling Sony Pictures and Columbia that we don’t want to see any films that highlight black stories.  No filmmaker can show up at a distribution company and say that “I’ve sold $10 million in bootleg DVDs on the street”.  The bootlegger on the street might get a marketing job but the filmmaker won’t.

Like the subject of this blog, I’ll venture to say that most people won’t read this because it is too long or it contains too many numbers.  However, the numbers suggest that black people don’t support our projects.  No producer in the world will say, “I prefer to lose money just so that people will see it.” A DIRECTOR might stick to his guns and say that they will make what they know even if it loses money, but NO DIRECTOR WANTS TO LOSE MONEY BY DOING IT.  They are already paid by the producers.  One problem is that the director won’t get as much work.  If we don’t make a conscious effort, we’ll never see the prequel (or sequel) to “Bees” or stories by up and coming filmmakers that will blow your mind.  Instead we’ll have to continue to bootleg Batman, a movie that makes so much money that it breaks records all over the place.

Make it easier on ourselves…Support films in the movies and at your local video stores. That way you won’t have to spend your time reading this again next year and hoping that we will see an important black filmmaker and producer in the future.

 

Tieuel Legacy! aka The Devil’s Devil’s Advocate