THE HOLLYWOOD JIM CROW
The Hollywood Jim Crow
The Racial Politics of the Movie Industry
Maryann Erigha
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York
© 2019 by New York University
All rights reserved
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Erigha, Maryann, author.
Title: The Hollywood Jim Crow : the racial politics of the movie industry / Maryann Erigha.
Description: New York : New York University Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018020940| ISBN 9781479886647 (cl : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781479847877 (pb : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: African American motion picture producers and directors. | African Americans in the motion picture industry. | Motion pictures—Social aspects—United States—History.
Classification: LCC PN1995.9.N4 E75 2018 | DDC 791.43/652996073—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018020940
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CONTENTS
Introduction: Race Matters in Hollywood
1. Representation and Racial Hierarchy
5. Manufacturing Racial Stigma
Conclusion: Hollywood’s Racial Politics
FIGURES AND TABLES
FIGURES
Figure I.1. Antoine Fuqua at the premiere of The Magnificent Seven
Figure 1.1. Cultural representation pyramid
Figure 1.2. 1963 March on Washington
Figure 2.1. Variety headline
Figure 2.2. Race of cast and production budgets for Black-directed movies
Figure 3.1. Average production budgets by race of director
Figure 3.2. Ava DuVernay at the Ultimate Disney Fan Event
Figure 4.1. “She’s Back” billboard ad
Figure 5.1. John Singleton at a Canadian entertainment cultural showcase
Figure 6.1. Carver Theater in downtown Birmingham, Alabama
Figure C.1. Black-directed movies headline cinema in Athens, Georgia
TABLES
Table 2.1. Domestic box office, Tyler Perry–branded films
Table 3.1. Racial representation of directors, major distributors
Table 3.2. Racial representation of directors, independent / studio independent distributors
Table 3.3. Top-budgeted Black-cast movies by Black directors
Table 3.4. Top-budgeted Black-cast movies by non-Black directors
Table 4.1. Black-directed franchise movies
Table 4.2. Top-grossing Hollywood franchise movies
Introduction
Race Matters in Hollywood
The movie The Magnificent Seven (2016), an action/adventure western, starred the veteran actor Denzel Washington alongside the less well-known white actors Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke. The movie was directed by Antoine Fuqua, who, like Denzel Washington, has a number of successful movies under his belt. Despite their combined experience, there was a hesitance among Hollywood insiders—those with great influence on the decision-making processes in the production of popular cinema—to produce The Magnificent Seven for a big budget with Washington starring and Fuqua directing. In the following quotation, Steve details the reasons behind his caution:
Loved the script—plot, characters all incredibly well written and with Denzel and Antoine it feels compelling. My concern is that Equalizer was 36% caucasian and 35% African American. I wonder if we were to look at successful westerns like True Grit how much of that audience was caucasian. I honestly don’t know but if I had to guess it would be more caucasian and less african american. So if in the last week we’re figuring out what audience to double down on like we just did with Equalizer, I want to be sure that audience has the elements they need to buy tickets. Do we double down on the AA audience and if so does that audience show up at Westerns in a big enough way to make our number? Or do we push older Caucasian males toward a Denzel / Antoine Fuqua movie and if so will they show up in a big enough way? Obviously westerns pose an initial set of concerns but I’m not sure the pedigree