Blacks Come Out in Droves for ‘Django Unchained’

Other top ten theaters for “Django” include AMC Regal Union Square in New York City and the ArcLight in Sherman Oaks. While these locations nearly always make the list of top-grossing theaters for any given film, the Egyptian and Hoffman Center don’t as a rule pop up unless a movie crosses over, such as “The Blind Side.”

For example, none of the top ten theaters for “Django’s” fellow holiday releases “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” or “Les Miserables” are in heavily black communities.

There’s no racial breakdown for the recent Denzel Washington drama “Flight,” though the Egyptian was the only black theater making the top ten list. Conversely, Foxx’s Ray, released in 2004, played to a predominately black audience.

When testing “Django,” TWC held two simultaneous screenings in New York. One audience was made up of African-Americans, while the other was a mixed audience (about 15 percent was African-American). The film received top, identical scores from the two audiences.

Just before Christmas, Spike Lee publicly chastised Tarantino for being “disrespectful” of black people, and some who agree with Lee have called for a boycott of “Django.” Tarantino has maintained that he won’t be influenced by what he calls social criticism.

“I believe in what I’m doing wholeheartedly and passionately. It’s my job to ignore that,” he said in a December interview with THR.

(Photo: AP)