Image courtesy of Disney
A new study in the developing academic field of spending research dollars on things we damn well should know by now has exposed a startling new fact—non-white folks actually love a good movie. And get this, it turns out that said folks (even some who happen to be white) actually pay more money for said movies if its characters are more colourful than the standard white.The University of California recently took a good look at the 200 or so top grossing films from 2016 and found that Captain America and Suicide Squad, whose minority characters made up more than a fifth of its cast, did pretty damn well. Each were proven to gross far more globally in comparison to their counterparts that went for a mostly white cast.The average box office for a film with 21 percent to 30 percent of minority actors took in $179.2 million in contrast to the bland-opposite that averaged around $40 million world wide.Even now in 2018, Black Panther has surpassed Iron Man 3’s $409 million and Captain America’s $408 milion for the 22nd place in the all-time domestic chart, with its (nearly) all-black cast. It’s proof positive where no proof should have been needed, that the adage of white equals height continues to be a long withstanding falsehood.“Our findings reveal that, regardless of race, audiences want to see diversity on screen,” said study co-author Ana-Christina Ramon in a statement.With 40 percent of the US population being minorities, and 51 percent being women, this is some no-brainer stuff here. The success of Wonder Women which also grossed more than $821 million worldwide is no mistake when it comes to the desire for women on-screen. And Get Out, which managed $175 million for a horror film; Oscar nod included, was no mistake when it came to a hunger for a black/different perspective.But hey, if we were a typical Hollywood executive, or one of these guys, we might not have known all this stuff already.Follow Noel Ransome on Twitter.
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