It started in 2012 and continued into 2013, a trend so slight it crept up so slowly under everyone’s nose. I am talking of course about the resurgence of black cinema in North America.
Only this time it’s more reflective of the African Diaspora in North America than ever before, yet, a wider audience have embraced it. Indeed, most of the time their marketing isn’t has targeted or limited as before.
Sure the budgets haven’t changed much since the 1990’s when movies like Love Jones, Brown Sugar or The Best man were critical and financial successes. What’s different now is the size of their audiences.
A wider and more diverse audience is seeing so called “black movies” (films with either predominantly black casts or stories about black culture) now. Think of a film such as 2012’s Think like a man which grossed and astounding final gross of $100 million.
Sure it had a famous book and author behind the project in comedian Steve Harvey. However, that book’s readers were primarily black.
No doubt social media is the big difference here. Only 12 years ago there were no Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter or even Myspace.
If you released a movie back then you were competing with larger more mainstream films with bigger advertising budgets and actors. Now we have a somewhat of a more leveled playing field were good movies rise and the crap sinks to the bottom.
