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Topic: Spanish language films for a Hispanic audience
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 12-08-2011 11:37 AM
I just saw this thread.
I have done work for a group in Providence, RI. that four-walls various venues and shows films targeted at the Spanish-speaking population. They do very well and have been doing this on an irregular basis for five years or so. The films have all been of Latin-American origin...no dubbed/subtitled American films. I am not familiar with their advertising methods for the films, but they do good business by selling screen advertising (a DVD loop that plays before the films) to local business that target the Spanish-speaking community.
The films themselves have mostly been 35mm (there was at least one on Beta), with about an even mix of subtitled prints and non-subtitled prints. Most films play once or twice and someone involved with the film usually speaks. Print condition is usually fair, at best, but a few have been stunning.
There are at least two potential issues with this type of programming that anyone doing this sort of programming should be aware of in advance:
- the audiences at these shows tend to be rowdy (not in a bad way, but it is apparently socially acceptable to talk on cell phones and allow one's children to run around in the aisles during the show); this is not actually a problem, but it is something that the theatre should be aware of in advance (because of the audience noise during the screenings, they want the films played _loud_).
- these shows tend to attract patrons who may not have legal status to live in the country; I know that the organizer of these screenings discontinued them for a while for fear of immigration raids; this has not actually happened to my knowledge, but it is probably not the sort of publicity that you would want for your theatre, regardless of your personal political views
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Edward Havens
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 614
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Mar 2008
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posted 12-19-2011 04:03 AM
Back in the late 1990s, I ran a three screen theatre in a rural area with about 40,000 population and an 80% Hispanic demographic. In the 1970s, this theatre had been a first-run single auditorium house of Mexican features and the occasional Spanish-dubbed American movie, and had done moderate business, but the owners went back to first-run American movies in English because the theatre could not sustain a profitable venture with only Spanish language titles. During my tenure, we would do great business with movies like Selena, but trying to bring in something like Lone Star, a great John Sayles movie with about 50% Spanish dialogue with English subtitles, and it went over like a lead balloon. In one week, I think we had 10 people for the movie, including myself, my mom and stepdad, and the owner. After I left, and the owner built a newer eight screen location on the other side of town, there were more experiments with Spanish language titles, with no business whatsoever.
I know Maya Releasing does an annual "film festival" like the After Dark Horror Fest, but with non-horror titles aimed at a Hispanic audience, and I don't think it plays in more than 15-20 theatres, and I never hear of any good business coming from them. This year's titles included movies starring David Rasche (Sledge Hammer!), Elsa Pataky (Fast Five), Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jamie Kennedy, and one with Eva Longoria, Christian Bale, Kate Del Castillo (Weeds) and Oscar Nunez (The Office), so it's not like they are micro-budget titles featuring actors with zero name recognition.
I'd say try it if you're willing to try anything. Just don't be surprised if they do nothing.
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 12-19-2011 05:10 AM
Often a big mistake people make "tying" Spanish language films or any other niche market is that they run one or two films, get nearly empty houses and throw their hands up and say, "this won't work." The problem is, you can't just book the titles and play them the same way American titles are booked and played, relying on the studios' promotion to sell the picture. There is no studio promotion with these alternative language titles and one has to be willing to do one's own marketing.
Marketing is expensive, and one has to be committed for the long hall. You have to establish an audience base and that takes TIME. The Spanish language community needs to learn that your theatre is the place running Spanish language films (or Korean or Hindi, or Bollywood or whatever niche demographic you are trying to reach). You need to advertise in the papers that they read, place ads on the radio stations they listen to and partner with their churches and community centers, etc. If anyone thinks they can just put their standard ad in their standard Movie Time Table in the same local news paper the way they have always done and expect a completely different segment of the population to show up en masse, they will be very disappointed.
Switching to alternative language product is deceptive because although at first look, it might seem much cheaper than booking traditional Hollywood titles on the break, but in reality, other costs can add up quickly in terms of marketing, the man hours and sheer leg work it takes to coordinate the essential community tie-ins that you MUST have in order to pull in a new audience, not to mention the commitment to the format over the long haul. Even doing EVERYTHING right, it can take up to a year maybe even more to get a community to recognize that your theatre is THE place to go for their native language entertainment. As I said, you can't book two or three titles and think you are going to get full houses and when you don't, you run away from it tail between your legs. You need to be prepaired to patiently build an audience, something most exhibitors are not good at. Most exhibitors who don't have some vested personal interest in showing foreign language films -- for example, it's their own country-of-origin and they or their parents or grandparents speak the language -- they will usually not have the passion or the stomach to stick with a foreign language format for as long as it can take to establish a profitable audience draw.
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