A Colorblind Formula for Success at Box Office

Claudia Eller’s recent article in the Business section on Malcolm Lee’s new film “The Best Man” and its potential for attracting a large and diverse audience (“Filmmaker Hopes All-Black Film Will Make It to the Mainstream,” Sept. 24) presents a troubling view of the chances for a movie with a black cast finding the Holy Grail of crossover success.

Fortunately for all of us who believe such films are worth making, her analysis is fatally flawed.

By downplaying in her article (and the accompanying chart) virtually any films with “crossover” black stars in the driver’s seat (with the exception of “Waiting to Exhale,” where Whitney Houston falls into that category, in my book), Eller gives the impression that these films are destined to low box office and no international appeal. “Few, if any movies with all-black casts have ever crossed over to broader audiences,” she writes, and the chart lists only four films with “predominantly black casts” that grossed more than $40 million at the U.S. box office, topped by “Waiting to Exhale” with $67 million.

The simple fact is, any film without stars with broad appeal has to struggle to make it in this opening-weekend-happy environment. And films with an all-black or largely black cast plus stars have the same advantage of films with an all-white cast and stars: familiar faces, welcomed by a broad segment of the audience.

If you are going to examine and list box-office grosses of black films, you must include star-driven vehicles like “The Nutty Professor” (which at least was referenced), “Bad Boys” and even “The Color Purple,” grossing $269.4 million, $140.8 million and $142.2 million worldwide, respectively. Should you choose to ignore such films, then you’ve got to look only at a world of “all-white” films that are truly comparable, such as the un-starry grosses of “Fargo” ($47.8 million), “Disturbing Behavior” ($17.4 million), “Deconstructing Harry” ($13 million) and the like. Or thematically comparable films like the parody “Dracula: Dead and Loving It” ($11 million), or well-done family stories like “Home for the Holidays” ($18 million) or “October Sky” ($32.4 million).

You can’t ignore the films of Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence and their peers and compare Malcolm Lee’s effort to the star-driven ensemble of “The Big Chill” or even “The Cosby Show”--which, in Bill Cosby, had the great advantage of a household-name comedian-actor with proven, broad-based television appeal.

Now, factor in that maybe 10 times as many small, starless films are made by the studios with all-white casts, and certainly there’ll be more hits that break out on the basis of their stories and exciting performances. If as many films with all-black casts were made, it’s my contention that there would be roughly as many outsize hits.

Also, by damning such films categorically to a pittance overseas, you ignore what most clever studio executives know full well: Black-themed movies often perform very well in video sales and rentals (and on cable and pay-per-view), and derive a disproportionate share of their revenue from these outlets, offsetting lower international grosses.

“Don’t Be a Menace. . . ,” for instance--a film I know something about since I directed it--has made millions in rentals and has a total domestic gross listed by Internet Movie Database as $39,225,000--almost twice what you’ve charted it to have accrued. And it wasn’t even priced for sell-through!

When all is said and done, it seems that people come to see stars they like and stories that move them to laugh and/or cry. Black cast or white cast, a truly objective analysis reveals this is the simple, colorblind recipe for success.

Paris Barclay is a two-time Emmy-winning director of “NYPD Blue” and co-executive producer of CBS’ upcoming series “City of Angels.”