How Latinos Could Solve Hollywood’s Slump

*Think what you will of the Cantinflas movie, it cost $3.2 million to make and made $2.6 million in it’s opening weekend. It’s not breaking records, but it is beating the average. Hollywood execs should pay attention. VL

By Ivette Lopez , LA Weekly

Over Labor Day weekend I saw Cantinflas with my mother, an avid telenovela fan from Mexico, and my 8-year-old sister, who grew up in Fresno and has never seen a single Cantinflas movie in her life. But after seeing my mother point out the huge, colorful billboards, a curiosity sparked. Even with her broken Spanish, she knew somehow Cantinflas, or “Pantinflas,” as she innocently calls him, represented her identity in a way other movies don’t.

Cantinflas’ impact was seen before the film even started playing. Clutching our bucket of popcorn, the three of us found ourselves in a room filled with Latino families. Everyone chatted in Spanish. It was as if we had walked into a twilight zone, or traveled to a Cineplex in Mexico, instead of being in the middle of downtown Culver City. Even the trailers to English movies were narrated in Spanish.

What exactly is this phenomenon? The answer lies in the spending power the Spanish-speaking population has in the United States. Latinos encompass the largest ethnic minority in the country, and we love going to the movies: A whopping 11.6 million Hispanics were considered frequent moviegoers in 2013 and the number is only growing, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. Hispanics go to the movies an average of six times per year — the highest attendance level of all minority groups.

Click HERE to read the full story.

[Photo by Angel Gonzalez/ Courtesy of KenioFilms.com and Pantelion Films]

 

Subscribe today!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Must Read