Furious 7 makes ferocious statement on diversity at box office

13th April 2015   ·   0 Comments

By Terry Shropshire
Contributing Writer

(Special to the NNPA from the Michigan fast cash marion ia Chronicle) — Hollywood, are you paying attention? Ethnically diverse casts produce record-breaking monster hits.

Take exhibit A, the just-released Furious 7, which set or neared records for the studio as well as the national and international box offices.

The Universal film opened to a franchise-best $384 million over the weekend at the global box office, including $143.6 million domestically — the biggest debut since The Hunger Games: Catching Fire in November 2013 ($158 million). More impressive, its global total was the fourth-best of all time.

According to Universal, 75 sunday payday loan lenders percent of the audience in North America was non-Caucasian, generally in line with previous installments.

Check out these stats:

• Hispanics, who have replaced Blacks as the most frequent moviegoers in the United States, made up the majority of ticket buyers for Furious 7;

• Caucasians made up 25 percent;

• African Americans (24 percent),

• Asians (10 percent)

• Others cash advance athens al (4 percent).

“The importance of diversity of the ensemble cast in the Fast and Furious franchise has been an integral part of the success of the brand,” Rentrak box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian told industry publication Hollywood Reporter. “There is literally someone within the cast that is relatable on some level to nearly every moviegoer around the world, and this has paid big dividends at the box office and also in terms of how casting decisions will be made in the future for these types of large-scale action epics.”

Furious 7’s paddy payday loan ensemble cast includes Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Jason Statham, Dwayne Johnson and, of course, the late Paul Walker. Christopher “Ludacris” Bridges, martial artist Tony Jaa and Djimon Hounsou also star.

“Someone that I admire quite a lot recently said this is a franchise that really looks like America, and there are characters that everyone can relate to. I think that’s a big plus,” said Universal president of domestic distribution Nicholas Carpou.

This article originally published in the April 13, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.