Minorities At The Movies Fill Seats, But Not Screens : NPR: According to a recent study, Hollywood has a little problem that could be costing it a lot of money.
Call it the Tyler Perry paradox. The director's Madea movies, melodramatic comedies featuring Perry in drag as the no-nonsense, busty grandma complete with silver wig, purse and gun, have been hugely profitable for Lionsgate Films. He has a huge following among black moviegoers.
So what's the issue? There seems to be an assumption that this is the only type of movie that black people want to see. Matthew Barnhill, senior director of marketing at BET, says that's not true. A recent BET study says blacks go to exactly the same kind of features as their white counterparts, with one surprising difference, according to Barnhill:
'We see movies 21 percent more often than the general market, and we're 22 percent more likely to have multiple repeat dealings of a movie.'
