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In its sixth year, the Acapulco Black Film Festival, produced by Film Life Inc. (an independent film distribution arm of UniWorld) and the Black Filmmaker Foundation, offers networking opportunities, panel discussions, workshops, seminars, awards, and screenings.22 Jeff Friday has played an important role in black film development as the creative force behind the launch of UniWorld Films, the Acapulco Black Film Festival, and Film Life Pictures. There is also the five-year-old Urbanworld Film Festival presented by HBO in New York. Urbanworld also has a distribution arm, Urbanworld Films, which acquires independent commercially viable black and Latin films and distributes them in limited release.23
Two other popular festivals include the Hollywood Black Film Festival started by Black Talent News in 1999, and the oldest film festival for black films, the Newark Black Film Festival, currently celebrating its 27th year.
An array of other film festivals for black filmmakers exists, including the Black Filmmaker Magazine International Film Festival held in London; Harvard Black Film Festival hosted by Harvard University’s Black Arts Festival; the African-American Film Festival presented by the African-American Filmmakers Association; the Denver Pan-African Film Festival; the Queen City Black Film Festival; and the Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center’s Annual African-American Film Marketplace. Cinema Shorts is an online film festival catering to African-American, Latin, and Asian-American filmmakers. The commercial success of black films in the ’90s inspired an influx of independent black filmmakers who have contributed to, and created the need for, the growing number of festivals, markets, and showcases targeted specifically to the black filmmaker.
From a financial perspective, low-budget black films have continually turned a solid profit for studios since the early ’90s. This profit rests on the strong response of the African-American community to black films and larger crossover audiences than anticipated.24 Yet while African-Americans make up over 20% of moviegoers, in 1999 African-American directors made up only 2.4% (out of a total of 6,564) of the membership of the Directors Guild of America.25
John Singleton on the set
of Boyz N the Hood
A review of black films released in 2000 shows considerable financial return for film studios. Keenen Ivory Wayans’ Scary Movie and John Singleton’s update of Shaft cleared the $100 million mark in domestic gross revenues, according to Black Enterprise and Black Talent News.26 Singleton is also the director of Boyz N the Hood (1991), which he made for $6 million. The film grossed $57.5 million for Columbia Tri-Star.27 The commercial success of black films released domestically will be further explored in the following director’s case studies. As for the foreign market, "Black films earned an astounding $1.2 billion worldwide in 2000," according to Black Talent News, an Internet magazine. Yet the first thing movie studio and television executives rattle off when a black filmmaker pitches an idea or submits a script is, "Black films and TV shows don't do well in the foreign market."28
Although black films increasingly perform well at the box office, distribution deals and budgets for the films continue to remain low. A average film costs around $50 million, while movies targeted to African-Americans have budgets that average around $13 million.29 Dennis Greene, in his article "Tragically Hip," which appeared in Cineaste in 1994, assesses the situation:
The 'relationship business' cannot so respond. Instead, it is engulfed in a miasma of self-serving and self-fulfilling myths based on the unspoken assumption that African-American films can never be vehicles of prestige, glamour, or celebrity. The relationship players have convinced themselves that black films can do only a limited domestic business under any circumstance and have virtually no foreign box office potential. They assume that the only dependable African-American audience is teenagers. They also assume that films that exploit black urban violence are all the black teenage audience and the limited crossover audiences want to see about black life. Any significant increases in production and marketing costs are projected as a wasted expense that cannot greatly increase the audience for African-American films.30
The Business of Black Films
Spike Lee is widely known as an independent black filmmaker who operates outside of the Hollywood mainstream, while also receiving critical acclaim. He is credited with starting the wave of independent black filmmakers, because of his impact on the film industry. Since directing and producing She’s Gotta Have It in 1986, Lee has directed and produced 15 films and executive-produced one.31
When he stepped on the scene as a filmmaker, "Lee helped to spark an independent mindset among African-Americans in the film industry that is evident in the new millennium."32 With his first commercial film, Lee helped Hollywood realize that a feature film with an all-black cast could be both commercially and critically successful.33
She’s Gotta Have It, the story of a middle-class African-American woman living in Brooklyn and her three boyfriends, from whom she has a hard time choosing just one, is a comedic sexually charged film with an all-black cast, targeted to an African-American audience. To make the film, Lee operated outside of typical film industry practice. It was made without union support, insurance, or location permits. There were also no television spots, elaborate promotional campaign, or music soundtrack to bring awareness to the film. But of course, the biggest obstacle for Lee was financial capital. Another hurdle was the lack of access to exhibition venues. For capital Lee was able to earn small grants and attract private investors, personal donations from friends and acquaintances, and limited partnerships.34
His film was accepted to the San Francisco Film Festival and the prestigious "Director’s Fortnight" at Cannes. Island Pictures, an independent film distributor, picked up the film and, with Lee, devised a skillful distribution plan. The initial theatrical run was exclusively held at the 300-seat New York Cinema Studio One. After a successful run in New York, the film was released in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. This distribution strategy was a success. In the first week, the film was released on one screen with $50,000 at the box office; by week four it was on ten screens with $330,800 at the box office and $654,790 cumulative gross. Lee had made the film for $125,000, Island Pictures purchased the rights for $400,000, and it eventually grossed over $11 million.35
 Spike Lee's Bamboozled  |
Keenen Ivory Wayans, best known for creating the Emmy Award-winning Fox Television Network show In Living Color, is another example of an independent black filmmaker who broke the barriers to distribution. Before making Scary Movie and Scary Movie 2, Wayans had directed two movies, and produced two others. Also an actor and former talk show host, Wayans is no stranger to Hollywood.38 His track record in Hollywood as an actor, director, and producer, helped him to gain a studio deal from Miramax for Scary Movie, a film that spoofs the company’s Scream franchise.39
As with other black films, Scary Movie was given a relatively low budget of $18 million. In its first weekend, it raked in $42.5 million at the box office.40 It was the largest opening ever for an African-American film director.41 The film grossed over $150 million domestic and was the highest-grossing film in Miramax’s history. Although the film wasn’t considered a black film, and was targeted to the mainstream as a teenage movie like Scream and its sequels, Wayans was only given a small budget.42
The film was successful in both the domestic and foreign markets, with a worldwide gross — as recorded November 16, 2000 — of $260 million.43 Miramax Dimension couldn’t ignore the earnings potential, so the studio rushed Wayans back into production to make a sequel. For the sequel he was given a bigger budget of $45 million,44 but in its first weekend it only grossed $21 million45 — a far cry from the opening weekend gross of the original. Scary Movie 2 only has a worldwide gross of $117.2 million in comparison to Scary Movie’s $260 million, according to Box Office Guru.46 Perhaps releasing a sequel was overkill, or the bad press the film received kept it from topping its predecessor. Perhaps the sequel was simply a bad movie. In an interview with Alberlynne "Abby" Harris on Blackfilm.com, Wayans discusses the difference in working with a small budget vs. a big budget:
I prefer the smaller budget versus the bigger budget because the mentality that goes along with big budget filmmaking doesn’t really suit me; the mindset that is that money is the answer. With the smaller budget world — it’s creativity. Creativity is the answer because you don’t have money. I always prefer the creative solution to an expensive solution.47
From Wayans’ experience it appears that past successes and creating relationships within Hollywood are necessary and required tools to obtaining a distribution deal for the independent black filmmaker. But in reality, not everyone can be Spike Lee or Kennen Ivory Wayans.
NOTES
22. George Alexander, "Reaching the Silver Screen," Black Enterprise, (December, 2001) p. 92.
23. Ibid., p. 96.
24. Dennis Greene, "Tragically Hip: Hollywood and African-American Cinema (Race in Contemporary American Cinema, part 2) Cineaste v20, n4 (October, 1994) p. 28.
25. George Alexander, "Fade to Black," Black Enterprise, (December, 2000) p. 110.
26. Ibid., p. 108. & Emma E. Pullen, "Global Majority is Black Films’ "Foreign Market"," Africana.com, (January 26, 2001). http://www.africana.com/DailyArticles/index_20010126.htm
27. George Alexander, "Fade to Black," Black Enterprise, (December, 2000) p. 114.
28. Emma E. Pullen, "Global Majority is Black Films’ "Foreign Market"," Africana.com, (January 26, 2001). http://www.africana.com/DailyArticles/index_20010126.htm
29. George Alexander, "Fade to Black," Black Enterprise, (December, 2000) p. 110.
30. Dennis Greene, "Tragically Hip: Hollywood and African-American Cinema (Race in Contemporary American Cinema, part 2) Cineaste v20, n4 (October, 1994) p. 28.
31. Spike Lee, Filmography, Cinema.com. http://www.cinema.com/search/person_detail.phtml?ID=636
32. Lorraine Morris, "Top Black Independent Films of 2000," Upscale, (March, 2000) p. 34.
33. S. Craig Watkins, Representing: Hip Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998) p. 108.
34. Ibid., pp. 108-110.
35. Ibid., pp. 111-112. & Lorraine Morris, "Top Black Independent Films of 2000," Upscale, (March, 2000) p. 34.
36. George Alexander, "Fade to Black," Black Enterprise, (December, 2000) p. 112.
37. Bamboozled, Box Office Data, The Numbers. http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2000/BMBZL.html
38. Keenen Ivory Wayans, Credits, iFilm.com. http://www.ifilm.com/ifilm/people/people_index/0,4128,182799,00.html
39. George Alexander, "Fade to Black," Black Enterprise, (December, 2000) p. 108.
40. Nancy Chandross, "Wayans Weekend," ABC News online, (July, 2000). http://abcnews.go.com/sections/entertainment/DailyNews/boxoffice000709.html
41. Rebecca Ascher-Walsh, "Fright’s Night," EW Daily News (July, 2000). http://www.ew.com/ew/daily/0,2514,3290,00.html
42. George Alexander, "Fade to Black," Black Enterprise, (December, 2000) p. 108.
43. Worldwide Box Office Grosses, Box Office Guru, (December, 2001). http://www.boxofficeguru.com/intlarch5.htm
44. Christy Lemire, "The Movie Fans' Journal: Scary Movie 2," 9Online Movies. http://www.kwtv.com/movies/reviews/r-scary2.htm
45. Ei: The Weekend Gross (July, 2001). http://www.einsiders.com/gross/2001-07-6-8.html
46. Worldwide Box Office Grosses, Box Office Guru, (December, 2001). http://www.boxofficeguru.com/intl.htm
47. Alberlynne "Abby" Harris, "An Interview with Keenen Ivory Wayans: Working around the clock from the Director’s Chair," (July, 2001). http://blackfilm.com/20010713/features/i-keenenivorywayans.shtml
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