The box office numbers were in yesterday morning and The Hunger Games stayed on top. No surprise there, but what did seems surprising from the box office report came from Relativity Media’s Snow White pic Mirror Mirror. While finishing the weekend with a weak $19 million, Mirror Mirror did succeed in drawing a diverse crowd. Specifically, Entertainment Weekly said, “Interestingly, the film’s audience was quite ethnically diverse as well. Audiences were 52 percent Caucasian and 48 percent non-Caucasian, including 20 percent Hispanic viewers.” What’s really interesting is that the box office found these audience breakout surprising considering that Hispanic moviegoers represent the largest moviegoing group relative to their population.
In the same way Hispanics have become an important political voice, so it goes with Hollywood and moviegoing. Hispanics go in families, they go often, and they account for a larger share of the ticket sales.
As the public relations coordinator for Nielsen, a global provider of information and insights, I want to share with you the statistics that can help support why Hollywood needs to cast more Hispanic actors/actresses.
· Hispanic moviegoers saw 8.4 new release movies, on average a year.
· 67 percent of Hispanic moviegoers attended a movie in a group of 3 or more.
· And in 2010, when Nielsen examined that coveted group of heavy moviegoers — people who see on average 16 movies a year and contribute to 63 percent of ticket sales — it found that Hispanics make up 26 percent of those frequenting theaters.
· This data affect both the development of movies targeting the group as well as the way studios try to market so-called mainstream films.
