Could Latinos Save Hollywood?

When I was a kid in Nuevo Laredo I watched American movies, in English, with Spanish subtitles. It drove me crazy. I was perfectly fluent (and literate) in English and Spanish and the combination of English audio and Spanish text was confounding – especially when the translation was wrong.

That was a long time ago. I paid one dollar for a double feature matinée, never knowing what the movies were before hand, that wasn’t the point.  It was all about hanging with my buddies, laughing and heckling the screen. So we watched the French Connection followed by the latest El Santo film, or sme such random combination. The theaters were packed on Sunday afternoons.

Maybe there’s something there that the US movie industry could learn.

According to a report in ClickZ:

Movie theater attendance was also down: a 5 percent decrease in 2010, while January 2011 was the worst January in 20 years in terms of ticket sales. DVD revenues continue to decline (11 percent drop); and taking into consideration that DVD sales and rentals account for about half the profit of a movie, the picture doesn’t look good at all.

Latinos, though, love going to the movies – I’m still an avid movie-goer.

Latinos are heavy movie fans: they are over 80 percent more likely than the general population to see a movie in the opening weekend, according to Simmons, fueling weekend openings. Overall, Hispanic moviegoers bought more than 300 million tickets in 2009, watching more than eight movies per years on average.

The Hollywood PR machine has yet to catch on. Roughly 5 to 10 percent of their total marketing budget is spent on reaching the Latino market.

The ClickZ report mentions the relatively small share of the PR pie that goes to Spanish media, and how Latino language preferences are in flux – Spanish media is not the only way to reach US Latinos.

Another interesting look is at the role that language plays in movie selection. Most Latinos see movies at the theater in English, even among Spanish-dominants. One reason is the lack of alternatives, but it is also because genre and relevancy comes first. Latinos prefer to watch a movie they like first, then the language that the movie is in.

I have a definite prejudice on this issue. My son is studying film production so I’d like to see more Latinos involved in the industry, and not just seen as a potential audience. It makes sense to me that if more Latinos are involved in making movies they’d make movies that more Latinos would want to watch. And if the overall ayudience is dwindling, while Latino audiences are growing…

Remember, it’s not about making movies about  Latinos as much as it is about making movies with more Latinos in them, both in front and behind the camera.

Follow Victor Landa on Twitter: @vlanda