Sometimes the most intriguing aspects of a news story are buried well below the first paragraphs.
Consider this interesting feature from the Wall Street Journal on how Hollywood is tailoring its product for the oversease market.
It’s full of eye-opening passages that help explain why we see the movies we see – like an All American Hero named “G.I. Joe” transformed into an international warrior.
But this passage caught me flat-footed:
Fox Searchlight was recently developing “Baggage Claim,” which chronicles a young flight attendant’s search for Mr. Right and stars an ensemble of African-American actors, including Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson.
But that film ended up in “turnaround,” the Hollywood term for when a studio abandons the rights to a project and allows others to acquire it. It was heavily targeted to an African-American audience, a factor that often means the film won’t play well abroad.
Hmmm. Is there a racial divide overseas that isn’t talked about much stateside? Don’t some of the countries who show U.S.-made films have sizable black populations? Or does this speak to a cultural divide rather than a function of skin color?
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{ 40 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s not just overseas; here in Canada, Tyler Perry movies — which almost always open at #1 in “North America” — have done so poorly that his movies generally don’t get released here except in a few cities to the east. So I’d say it’s definitely more of a cultural divide.
I don’t know, but when I spent time in other countries American blacks are not welcomed often, there is always a niche, but American Blacks offend a lot.
I don’t know why. In Oz? Aboriginals are just Ozzies, but American Blacks are met with a lot of conflict.
I wouldn’t say it’s racism, or rather not entirely, it’s just a more focused conflict against americans accentuated by some intrinsic racism?
No clue.
I’d say cultural divide. American movies tend to display what it means to be african-american quite well. They define it and shape it. The culture in this country can be attributed to how it is portrayed on screen to a certain degree. Is that true for other countries? Does being black in, for example, France, Britain, or Russia mean the same as it does here in the United States. Or does being black have a different meaning and culture than it does here?
I also notice that when American movies are set in other countries we tend to see stock characters represented. If the movie were in Russia, it would feature stock russian characters or in Spain it would feature stock spanish characters. Only if the movie were to take place in Africa, or a South or Central American country would blacks be featured. Is this always right? Or is it a matter of marketing the film to the broadest possible audience?
Are blacks in Europe more apt to see themselves as citizens continuing their country’s unique national heritage, not as oppressed by it or apart, and not wanting their own different victim cultural identity as American blacks?
I think part of it is that blacks in America tend to be descended from American slaves (notable exceptions include the current president, whose father was African but not African-American, and people like Eric Holder, whose parents and/or grandparents came from Barbados, and Colin Powell, whose parents came from Jamaica), so they have a special, albeit complicated, connection to the U.S. that might not translate so well outside your nation’s borders.
Blacks in Canada, on the other hand, tend to trace their ancestry through the Caribbean (our current Governor-General, Michaëlle Jean, was born in Haiti), while European blacks tend to come directly from Africa or are only a few generations removed from ancestors who did. So that certainly raises a whole host of other issues, involving immigration and race relations etc., but it also indicates why there might be a cultural divide here.
Did not a European poster for ‘Couples Retreat’ exclude the black couple co-starring in the film?
Face it, the U.S. is probably the least racist nation in the world. A lot of countries are way more racist, but they think they are not and that we are. All “conventional wisdom” from the left are lies.
Best regards,
Gail S
http://www.backyardfence.wordpress.com
Christian — I’ve written about that extensively on my own site. My conclusions are, in no particular order:
1. The “growth” markets of Latin America, India, China, Asia don’t like Blacks much as actors/characters. Having been to China, I can attest that students at Tsinghua University (China’s Yale) spoke of frequent anti-African riots over women (the sex ratio in China is terrible due to same sex abortion).
Neither really do Europeans. Or ME folks. Only America will accept Blacks as actors/characters and if you compare the global popularity of say, Brad Pitt vs. Will Smith this is obvious.
Yes, newsflash obvious, America is the most tolerant and open society, most other nations have a hefty dose of racial identity and the “knowledge” that their own ethno-state/identity is “the best” while everyone else are “savages.” Americans are NOT like other people.
2. Global Box office is a mirage for profits. LOOK at the table in the article. The “growth” markets of China and India have grown over 300% over the last ten years — BUT STILL have less than 5% of the global box office.
This means that the US is first, with 33%, then Japan, at 7% of the global box office, and every other country is at 5% or LESS.
HOW HOW HOW do you get proper payment, accounting, revenues due to box office from a distribution like that? When you don’t have a “dealership” model ala Sony, Panasonic, Canon, Honda, etc? The answer is you can’t, and as confirmation I offer the fact that no studio has released a financial statement showing cash flows or net income from countries, as line items. If growth were surging, and driving profits, they’d tout it. Instead I see a mirage, like subprime mortgages, of global grosses that the studios don’t ever see (because, duh, the exhibitors simply send the studios a fraction of what they should be getting).
Prediction: Global winner “AVATAR” will not have box office NET REVENUES released by Fox/News Corp. Because the net revenue will be substantially less. Since its spread out so much, there’s not enough boots on the ground to check up and harass exhibitors into paying what’s due.
Implication — Studios are making far less money than they were five years ago with DVD sales, also dropping like a stone. MGM, Mirimax, will likely be followed by Paramount (the weakest of the majors) and possibly Sony (whose parent is in trouble).
[Its well known that foreign audiences do not like Black actors/characters much, I'd seen stuff alluding to that years ago, Karate Kid II will be a major failure for that reason alone abroad.]
It’s because of the cultural differences and has little to do with skin color.
NO, we just dump bad movies…
In short: Yes. Don’t you remember all the controversy surrounding the advert art for the international release of ‘Couples Retreat?’ The black couple was eliminated, and it caused tons of hub-bub.
The truth is, films staring primarily black actors and/or depicting African-American culture rarely fare well amongst white audiences in the US, and do even worse amongst ALL audiences overseas. Why? Because the African-American experience is a uniquely AMERICAN one rather than a uniquely AFRICAN one. Sure, there are people of color throughout the world, but with the exception of Canada to a certain limited extent, the black experience in the rest of the world is wildly different from the African-American experience. “African-American” movies are about as relatable to black audiences in other parts of the world as they are to white people right here in the US.
I think part of the problem with most of the “black” movies I’ve seen is that they tend to be quite vulgar, so I usually avoid them.
But … I love watching the occasional documentary that shows me a look at cultures wildly different from my own. It’s educational and enlightening. Why don’t global audiences feel the same way about African-American features?
I think black ‘culture’ is really starting to rub people the wrong way. The image they portray is no longer funny but grating.
Christian: Because there’s a world of difference between ‘Four Little Girls’ and ‘Madea Goes to Jail.’
Most “Black” movies originating in America have to do with blacks being drug dealers, thugs and or buffoons. Overseas movie goers don’t tend to gravitate towards that.
So … Tyler Perry films have no worth overseas? His body of work is mixed, but he’s directed some rather enjoyable films like “Why Did I Get Married” that are just as good as some of the dreck which makes it overseas. Why won’t global audiences give it – and other films like it – a chance?
Of course they have value overseas; But they have LESS value than they do in the USA. Why? Because studios spend less time and money promoting them (IF they promote them at all). Why? Because they assume foreign audiences won’t turn out to see them. Why? Because foreign audiences typically don’t turn out to see them. Why? Because studios spend less time and money promoting them. It’s a classic chicken/egg scenario.
There’s also a talent issue involved here, in that audiences have limited bandwidth available for developing an understanding of and appreciation for actors hailing from countries other than their own. We’re guilty of the same here in America. China and India both have ENORMOUS film industries, stuffed to the gills with talent that is revered in their home country, but little known elsewhere.
Can I name more than three Chinese movie stars? No. Can I name more than three Indian movie stars? MAYBE. Same goes for Spain and Mexico, two more foreign film meccas. I’ve got room in my puny little brain for Ziyi Zhang, Jackie Chan, Shilpa Shetty, Dev Patel, Paz Vega, Penelope Cruz, Salma Hayek, and Gael Garcia Bernal, but that’s just about it.
Same goes for audiences in non-American markets. Julia Roberts, Reese Whitherspoon, Denzel Washington, and Will Smith? They’ve got it covered (along with many others, because lets be honest here, non-Americans know a ton more about Americans and American culture than Americans do about non-Americans and non-American culture), and they WILL turn out to see those Stars’ films. But Sarah Polley, Carla Gallo, Craig Robinson and Taraji P. Henson? No. They don’t know those people (and if they do, it’s likely not by name), so they’re nowhere near as inclined to see their films.
What it comes down to is most are terrible movies, period. What’s even funnier is they stereotype themselves to boot, but whine like little girls when a “white movie” does the same to them. Kinda like using the N bomb as an expression of love. Soul Plane, Death at a Funeral (terrible remake of a good original), just about any Spike Lee product, and the list goes on and on. All they do is try to cash in on black’s going to theater by default, because as we all know, blacks hang with black, right? Kind of the same thing as their voting process. Close eyes, vote for the black guy, wait for their “freebies”. Alvin Greene for president. He couldn’t be worse. Look at what affirmative action stuck in the White House.
Maybe it has more to do with the content of the movies themselves, a lot are vulgar and filled with slang not understood outside of the American black experience. How do movies with heart, a recognizable story pertaining to the human experience play, as opposed to the ones targeted to blacks? I have seen excellent black casted movies, that I can watch over and over because of the story, not the race. Beauty Shop, Holiday Heart, Drum Line, and The Color Purple come to mind.
Gail is right.
The *fiction* is that there is less racism overseas.
But we might be doing something odd with “black” movies, too, that makes them off-putting. Watching British science fiction (Dr. Who and Torchwood, etc, and recently Ultraviolet on Hulu) inter racial couples seem boringly common place (after all, best to save hostility for the Scottish or vice versa, hm?) but it’s never *about* being black.
Hollywood does this weird thing… you’ll notice it if someone starts to talk about race in relation to Hollywood and you’ll hear something about how Hollywood doesn’t have enough roles for minority or black actors or actresses and then you’ll hear how certain roles don’t count even if played by black actors or actresses because they aren’t black roles. Take Will Smith. He often plays roles that are not black roles.
Look at the description of Baggage Claim.
It may be that this weird thing that we do does actually make a movie less accessible overseas.
On the other hand, remember the brouhaha over changing the Couple’s Retreat movie posters in England to take out the black couple? On the third hand, note the weirdness of everyone being paired with racial uniformity.
Sarah Polley, of course, is Canadian, not American.
The reason Dr. Who now makes such a point of having characters who are non-white is that, up through the 1990’s, you could count the number of non-white, non-space alien characters ever on the show, on less than two hands. Having a character with an Irish last name was edgy; there weren’t even any Welsh main characters. Sarah Jane was edgy because sometimes they had her say “Oi!” Nearly every non-white character was played by an expatriate American black guy.
Oh, but there were quite a few Chinese and Tibetan characters played by white English actors. Not played badly, but… there just weren’t any Asian actors on the show at all. Period. It made LA casting directors look shockingly diverse. No, I’m not kidding.
So yes, it’s normal to do this sort of casting now; but to an old fan, there’s still a faint air of bending over backward, just like it’s obvious that the BBC radio folks deliberately hire people with London accents instead of Oxford ones.
And you will notice that Mickey didn’t stick around as a companion, and that none of the recent female companions have been named Jaya or Yasmina. England is full of Polish immigrants, but there’s no Polish characters on the show. I can’t think of any Jewish character ever, unless it was in some WWII episode. And so on.
A few years back I went to Cancun with my girlfriend and a black co-worker/ friend and his wife.
When we checked in my friend was in line in front of us at the hotel. He asks for a beachside room and they tell him “no”. Fine.
I go up next and I ask for a beachside room and *presto* they have a beachside room for me. Blatant discrimination. It was a weird feeling for me, he took it fairly in stride.
Mexico does not like American black people. I saw it very clearly.
The answer should be glaringly obvious to anyone with a functioning pair of eyes and ears.
Hollywood is America’s most successful export and it’s worst ambassador. Especially for our black brothers and sisters. Who in the world would touch a black American with a ten-foot pole whose only impression of them had been from the violent, oversexed gangsta/hiphop image as seen in the movies of the last two decades? I’ve read that even in the Caribbean resorts the locals won’t allow their children to associate with black American kids for fear of them catching our disease and turning into thugz & hoochies.
sinanju; yo – calm down Rambo. There are plenty of examples of non-violent “black entertainment” in TV and the movies.
So ya, you’ve identified on stereotype with validity – but you haven’t identified 100% of the issue Mr. Smart-guy. Take a downer.
Black films tend to cover a very narrow slice of life and black film makers don’t even try to interest people outside their tiny world. I am personally tired of “slave and gangbanger” type movies. Violence, vulgarity, and stupidity don’t help. Tyler Perry has a niche market (old black church going women). While he tries to do something different, his movies are marketed as comedies but they are not funny (I love Ma’ Dear but everyone else tends to be mean, nasty people). I watched Diary of a Mad Black Woman with my best friend who is not black. She spent the whole time gasping in shock at the rotten behavior taking place on the screen especially when the angry black woman threw her paralyzed ex into the bathtub. At that point, she burst out “OMG, she’s killing him” and gave me the look. Don’t blame me, I didn’t make the movie. I think her reaction is representative of the global audience.
I once heard a famous black star give a talk to black people who wanted to work in the entertainment industry. During the Q&A, a black writer / producer asked a long rambling question about trying to sell a black comedy series that nobody wanted to buy and what could black people do to overcome racism in the industry. My first thought was “oh boy, another white man is keeping me down whine.” I will never forget his response. With perfect timing, he said “Have you ever considered that your script is just not funny?” Black movies would be enormously improved if black film makers answered that question honestly.
The truth is even simpler than that. America is the least racist country in the world. Full stop. Spend considerable time anywhere overseas and pay attention to how they react to black people. Oh, sure, the elites will (usually) treat them reasonably fairly. But the masses, no. And it’s not just African Americans. Anybody follow international football (soccer)? Fans regularly harass black players on the field in the most racist ways imaginable (calling them horrible names), in a manner not seen in America since the days of Jackie Robinson. That aspect is improving, but it’s far from extinct.
Actually I’ve studied in Europe, Italy specifically and I didn’t notice an issue, but we were in Rome. My roommate was black and there weren’t any issues but then was hanging with Latino and white American students. He is very low-key, he’s in flight school to be an airline pilot. Not a street thug by a long shot.
I traveled extensively in Western Europe but saw very few black people per se, some in London but not enough to notice an issue. As an American perhaps I’m desensitized to racial ussues. I’m half Mexican which of course is not racial mix, but it’s damn sure a cultural mix.
As Cato wrote earlier, America is probably the least racist of any of the other countries/ markets being discussed, but BlackRedneck gets it right: the narrow, self-centered content of “Black films” is unappealing. From the 70’s ‘Blacks-ploitation’ thru today’s offerings, they’ve always been niche defining products.
Taken from another angle: I enjoy foreign films; I think many foreign directors have story-telling gifts most current American directions can’t touch. If, however, a foreign film obsessively, self-conciously focuses on the vulgar, scatalogical or bizarre, I move on and lose interest in the director’s works, no matter how diverse his or her cast. (See ‘Volver’, an incredibly anti-male work.)
One thing that has not really been touched on is the fact that Comedies do not do as well oversees as action movies. Comedy is often more cultural based than explosions, especially verbal comedy. I think if you checked the African-American films by genre you’d find it enlightening.
Additionally I suspect a Sci-Fi comedy might track similar to Science Fiction rather than comedies because the “culture” in the humor would be science fiction culture.
That’s a good point rj; black comedy is very dialogue driven and “we” get it and may be ROTF Laughing but foreign audiences are more than likely shaking their heads going “what?”
Cultural references and colloquialisms are shared and enjoyed here (or not, taste in material is involved) but lost on others.
I watched a fair amount of English TV while in London (come on, you can “see the sights” just so much) and it takes a while to catch on to some references – and some were totally lost on me. They have some *strange* stuff on BBC 2 and 3 and…
@Black Redneck – How true. Great response by the industry veteran. Sometimes the material just doesn’t work no matter what color the author is – believe me I know! Sometimes you think you just spun literary GOLD and the audience goes “*sigh* next”.
Great point we haven’t fully addressed.
So? Send these movies to Africa with the next aid shipment. Tell me Sudanese women wouldn’t like to look at Denzel for a couple hours. Who cares if he’s talking nonsense.
A couple of things. Part of the reason is because studios refuse to advertise for black films. After all will smith and denzel do fine.
Two there is a genuine anti black sentiment. But I would say there is even more an anti black american sentiment. Even black carribean and black africans have a level of anti-black american sentiment.
Don’t assume being black will make one understand “black american culture.”
In the same way black jamaican culture is different from black kenyan, so is the same with black american.
But the greater problem is that films will have to be dumbed down for international appeal. That wall street journal article said that dialogue driven films don’t do well abroad. The foreign audience won’t get the cultural refrences and inside jokes.
It is not just black americans that will suffer.
There are some black-targeted films that are pretty good. And there are some that are not that hot. I find it interesting that there seemed to be this belief that African-Americans are not welcomed overseas. I once saw a photo of an Italian woman in Venice weeping with joy over being photographed with Denzel Washington. And I know someone who traveled to Europe with a black friend and revealed that his friend received better treatment – at least in France – than he did.
Could it be that non-American countries are still buying the negative stereotype of blacks that Hollywood has perpetrated for years? In fact, some of that stereotype still lingers in early 21st century Hollywood.
I’ve noticed that most black characters in science-fiction television do not last very long, in compare to most of the white characters.
Which would only be relevant if all black Americans were Denzel Washington.
“Which would only be relevant if all black Americans were Denzel Washington.”
Why? Because he won two Oscars? And how do you explain the experiences of the white acquaintance who received lesser treatment at the hands of the French than his African-American friend?
Well, yes.
Since I know absolutely nothing about your acquaintance, his friend, or the details of their trip, I have no comment on that whatsoever.
“Why? Because he won two Oscars? And how do you explain the experiences of the white acquaintance who received lesser treatment at the hands of the French than his African-American friend?”
Probably because many people around the world view white Americans as “real Americans”- and therefore are blamed for everything they associate with Americans. This could be foreign policy, fast food, and all other things they don’t like about the US.