# Why aren't urban blacks supporting Talk To Me? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 2, 2007, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205 "2007-08-02T23:01:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Amok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f17d59/32.png) [@Amok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amok)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/21 "2007-08-03T14:45:19Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] I don’t think I’ve seen a single tv ad. [/QUOTE] As I was reading this thread, I had to go back to click on the OP’s link to make sure it was the same movie I was thinking of (it was), since I’ve seen tons of TV ads for it, and was wondering why other people hadn’t. Then I remembered it’s probably because I tivo _Rap City_ on BET. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/22 "2007-08-03T14:50:28Z")
I’ve seen ads for it but it’s not playing here. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/23 "2007-08-03T15:11:13Z")
Couldn’t the subject matter be part of it, too? _Talk To Me_ looks to be a biopic, essentially. Frankly, I go to movies out of escapism, so real-world people aren’t as interesting, as I already know how everything turned out. Moreover, almost every biopic made in the last couple of decades follows the same inevitable formula, so much so that there’s zero suspense in it for me. Think VH1’s _Behind the Music_: There’s the early history, the climb to success and fame, the substance abuse (or infidelity, or illness, or whatever), the fall from grace, and then it all ends on something uplifting to show that this person has overcome problems and is going to be A-OK. Bo-ring. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/24 "2007-08-03T15:32:12Z")
Perhaps the film was marketed very successfully to the Urban Black audience. Perhaps the film is in the wrong theatres for urban black audiences. Perhaps the middle of summer is not the time for a limited release film to go out. Perhaps 2.1 million dollars spread over less than 200 theatres isn’t so bad. Perhaps they don’t like the movie. A film does not have a _right_ to an audience. Just because it has ‘X’ in it does not mean that the audience for ‘X’ will support it. Just as the makers of the last Star Trek film. Just because it has black actors in it does not mean that black people should see it. So black people see Who’s Your Caddy. White people will go see Hot Rod. The list good films that people will not see is long and stained with bitter tears. Besides, it will probably do well on DVD. ---
**Author:** ![Dob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Dob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dob)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/25 "2007-08-03T17:20:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Nevermind the fact that many whites will take one look at all mostly black cast and knee-jerkedly think “that’s a Black Movie…not for me”. For a board dedicated to fighting ignorance, that’s a pretty ignorant statement. Do you have any facts or anything to back this up, or is this just some pre-conceived notion you have? ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/26 "2007-08-03T17:45:26Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] I’ve been wanting to see _Talk to Me_. It had very little pre-release publicity, but great buzz – at least on NPR. I don’t think I’ve seen a single tv ad. [/QUOTE] Hmmm, weird. I have seen several television ads, daily for the past two weeks. And I don’t necessarily watch a lot of television. Though the only place it’s playing here is the local art house. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/27 "2007-08-03T17:59:13Z")
[QUOTE=Dob] For a board dedicated to fighting ignorance, that’s a pretty ignorant statement. [/QUOTE] Since you’re asserting that I’m wrong, perhaps you need to explain how you reached that conclusion. > [@you with the face](#): > > Nevermind the fact that many whites will take one look at all mostly black cast and knee-jerkedly think “that’s a Black Movie…not for me”. What makes you think I need a cite to support this? Have you been exposed to the same people I’ve been exposed to? Listened to the same conversations? Watched the same reactions? If not, then perhaps you shouldn’t be calling _me_ ignorant. _In my experience_ many white people are turned off by productions with predominately black casts. It could be for a number of reasons, the main one probably being the assumption that they won’t be able to relate to the characters. Surprisingly enough, many black people feel the same way in regards to “white movies”. But somehow I doubt that you’re going to going to call that an ignorant statement. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/28 "2007-08-03T18:04:32Z")
I wondering if you would ask this question about white people? Why are aren’t white people supporting “some movie with white people in it”, like Nancy Drew. Why aren’t white people supporting Nancy Drew? Why aren’t tween girls supporting Nancy Drew? Would you ever ask such a question? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/29 "2007-08-03T18:08:36Z")
_Talk to Me_ is a word-of-mouth film. Nobody outside Washington D.C. has a clue who Petey Green is. Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor are excellent actors with small but devoted followings, but cannot guarantee box office solely by their presence. This movie will live or die by people talking about it. So threads like this are a good start. And I agree, it’s a great movie, well worth seeing. The script is a little choppy, but Kasi Lemmons’s direction is very strong, and the cast is amazing, top to bottom. The film is very entertaining, very enlightening, and deserves to be successful. [QUOTE=Equipoise] Next up: **El Cantante** , which, by all accounts so far is a good movie [/QUOTE] _El Cantante_, on the other hand, is completely generic. It’s exactly like every other musical biography of the last few years: Troubled genius has personal issues, gets tangled up with substance abuse, alienates friends and family, basically throws away his career, The End. The only difference between this and movies like _Ray_ and _Walk the Line_ is that the subject of the film didn’t recover and have a career renaissance, and the music is Latin-flavored. Otherwise it’s totally paint-by-numbers, without a single noteworthy surprise. Jennifer Lopez is okay in it, Marc Anthony is pretty good for a singer-turned-actor, and the music is great. Beyond that… meh. It’s Musician Biopic 101 with a dollop of salsa on top. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/30 "2007-08-03T18:23:20Z")
**you with the face** has a valid point, whether you want to believe or it not, just as according to the new Drew Carey game show excerpt, 18% of whites polled wouldn’t vote for a black president. I can’t see a group of frat boys or old ladies queuing up to see a film that centered aroung the sexaul relationships of a group of black people, for example. Or a similar film with Hispanics, for that matter. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/31 "2007-08-03T18:32:23Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise] I saw it happen recently with **Duma** , an absolutely PERFECT family movie, that died a horrible death after it opened in Chicago and nobody went to see it (well, except my husband and me, and Roger Ebert). If it had done well here, it would have opened in other cities too. [/QUOTE] I watched this movie on TV last night, but I would have passed on it if not for your mention in this thread. It is indeed a fine little family movie, gorgeous to look at, and not sappy at all. And it has Kareem Said from Oz! ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/32 "2007-08-03T18:39:36Z")
I say this facetiously, but if it had been marketed as _Tyler Perry’s Talk to Me_, and had a scenery-chewing, big-momma, man-in-drag, type character Tyler Perry, Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence and others are famous for, it would have a huge black audience. It would infringe trademarks, copyrights, etc. but there are drawbacks to everything. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/33 "2007-08-03T19:04:03Z")
Well… 1. Urban blacks are the urban poor – unless there are relegated to a gentrified area that is artificially pushing up housing costs in a specific area pushing blacks to the suburbs. Anyway, the middle class and nouveau riche aren’t urban anymore except in established rich black neighborhoods in key chocolate cities. They’re commutters and suburbanites. 2. As I never tire of pointing out, poor blacks are disporportionately 1) young 2) underemployed 3) babies’ mamas who don’t go to no movies to learn nothin’, let alone a biopic about Petey Green, whose name only means something of you happen to be in radio, like me. 3. The urban black underclass are some of the biggest contributors of the purchase of pirated DVD movies in the world. One reason some movies suffer at the box office is that they’re pirated. A few folks are buying Talk To Me on the street, but it’s running a distant eighth to Transformers, Brats, Rush Hour 3 and any four other movies you care to name. 4. We can’t put all this on urban blacks. It stars Don Cheadle in a leading role. Isn’t that the definition of Box Office Poison? The man is a poor man’s Forest Whittaker, minue the talent, height and personal charisma. Don’s only advantage here are that both his eyes are straight. 5. I just wanted to aplogize for the last sentence of #4. 6. These people are too busy watching Tyler Perry entertainment to see something somehwat relevent. Somebody’s keeping House of Payne on TV. 7. Kasi Lemmons would be a better draw if she’s do movies more frequently than once every new presidency. 8. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/34 "2007-08-03T19:05:27Z")
What **Cervaise** said. _Talk to Me_ is not a designed blockbuster or even a designed mass-audience film… and you pretty much have to make those by design, or else depend on word-of-mouth buzz. Someting like the _The Blair Witch Project_ being a hit was remarkable precisely because it’s such a freak ocurrence. With _El Cantante_ at least the Puerto Rican-targeted media are giving it strong promotion, but that’s like a 3% market share, if you added all the latino community it would make it to at most a 14 to 15% share. So it would need to cross over to make major cash, and as much as I loved Héctor’s music, he is completely a pre-crossover figure. I doubt _El Cantante_ could match _Selena_. Besides there’s even segments of my community who may not respond well todue to various vauses: genericness as mentioned; a feeling that there’s too much JLo (OK, I can see the argument, it’s supposed to be Héctor’s bio not Puchi’s, but hey, no JLo = no upfront financing, can’t argue with that); disgruntled members of the Lavoe family going on chat shows to badmouth it; fans upset at it being “too negative” (dudes, he was NOT a positive role model); purists’ protests that it sucked support away from a previously-started homegrown indie production of the Lavoe biopic. ---
**Author:** ![I\_m\_Ron\_Burgundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9fc29f/32.png) [@I\_m\_Ron\_Burgundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_m_Ron_Burgundy)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/35 "2007-08-03T20:20:43Z")
Because it’s not being distributed or promoted widely. No one knows about it. I’m sure most people here didn’t know about it until you posted this thread. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/36 "2007-08-03T21:52:53Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] **you with the face** has a valid point, whether you want to believe or it not… [/QUOTE] Yes, I just nodded at its sad truth. I have even caught myself making that same calculation, skipping a movie because I don’t think its aimed at cranky, fat, middleaged, white guys and I assume I’ll be wishing for subtitles so I can know what people are saying. Tyler Perry’s movies I skip for a different reason. See, I can relate to cranky, fat, middleaged, black people just fine; while our range of experience may not overlap that much, we are still usually cranky about the much the same sort of things. My objection is that he appears to go inspirational at some point. I don’t do inspirational. And I hear Perry cleaned up the character in that she no longer smokes or packs a gun. Political correctness gone wild! 😉 People sometimes prefer movies about people like them. It’s like when I saw “Luther.” Ralph Feinnes probably did a fine job, but he was too saintly, skinny, and young and I wanted the cranky, fat, and middleaged Martin Luther from his portraits, the one who enjoyed a drink now and then and told dirty jokes at parties. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/37 "2007-08-03T22:00:13Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] **you with the face** has a valid point, whether you want to believe or it not, just as according to the new Drew Carey game show excerpt, 18% of whites polled wouldn’t vote for a black president. I can’t see a group of frat boys or old ladies queuing up to see a film that centered aroung the sexaul relationships of a group of black people, for example. Or a similar film with Hispanics, for that matter. [/QUOTE] Unless the movie is marketed as having a “universal message”. I mentally threw up every I heard “universal” used to describe the storylines in **My Big Fat Greek Wedding** or **Bend it Like Beckham**. When was the last time the audience was assured they’d be able to identify with a movie like **The Family Stone** or **Little Miss Sunshine**? They supposedly have universal appeal by default, but make the cast non-white or all-ethnic and suddenly folks are worried the audience won’t “get” it. I had a white friend who caught **Soul Food** on cable one day and told me that for a movie she had never heard of, it was “surprisingly” good. **Soul Food** wasn’t some lowly B movie, so why hadn’t she ever heard of it? And why was she surprised it was good? It’s remarks like that that piss me off. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/38 "2007-08-03T23:02:03Z")
[QUOTE=you with the face] Since you’re asserting that I’m wrong, perhaps you need to explain how you reached that conclusion. What makes you think I need a cite to support this? Have you been exposed to the same people I’ve been exposed to? Listened to the same conversations? Watched the same reactions? If not, then perhaps you shouldn’t be calling _me_ ignorant. _In my experience_ many white people are turned off by productions with predominately black casts. It could be for a number of reasons, the main one probably being the assumption that they won’t be able to relate to the characters. Surprisingly enough, many black people feel the same way in regards to “white movies”. But somehow I doubt that you’re going to going to call that an ignorant statement. [/QUOTE] Why the defensive tone, ywtf? All you have to do is offer the proof that there have never been any black boxoffice stars. Well, except for Sidney Poitier. And, OK, Will Smith. And Denzel Washington. And, um, Eddie Murphy. And Whoopi Goldberg, the Wayans, Ice Cube, Queen Latifah . . . But other than those . . . ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/39 "2007-08-03T23:03:12Z")
[QUOTE=Askia] 4) We can’t put all this on urban blacks. It stars Don Cheadle in a leading role. Isn’t that the definition of Box Office Poison? The man is a poor man’s Forest Whittaker, minue the talent, height and personal charisma. Don’s only advantage here are that both his eyes are straight. 1. I just wanted to aplogize for the last sentence of #4. [/QUOTE] Good. Because Don Cheadle is one of less than a handful of actors whose name alone will send me out to see a movie: he’s among the best 3 or 4 actors of this generation. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205/40 "2007-08-03T23:06:20Z")
[QUOTE=monstro] Unless the movie is marketed as having a “universal message”. I mentally threw up every I heard “universal” used to describe the storylines in **My Big Fat Greek Wedding** or **Bend it Like Beckham**. When was the last time the audience was assured they’d be able to identify with a movie like **The Family Stone** or **Little Miss Sunshine**? They supposedly have universal appeal by default, but make the cast non-white or all-ethnic and suddenly folks are worried the audience won’t “get” it. [/QUOTE] This is completely understandable. Most members of the movie going public–most of whom are white–will avoid a movie that smells of art, or subtitles. So movies with a cast that’s just a few degrees off of whitebread MOR risk losing audience share to such a preconception. So it makes perfect sense that such a film’s marketing campaign will make an effort to distinguish it on those grounds. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-urban-blacks-supporting-talk-to-me/414205.md?page=3)