Cyrus Langhorne
Last summer’s N.W.A. box office smash, Straight Outta Compton, reportedly relied on some race-based marketing strategies during its promotional campaign.
According to Universal executive Doug Neil and Facebook entertainment head Jim Underwood discussed playing the race card in marketing the flick last year based on its trailers.
Neil and his team were concerned that white audiences wouldn’t know enough about the subject of the film, the gangsta rap group N.W.A. So the trailer marketed to white people on Facebook centered on Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, two members of the pioneering group who later had acting and business careers and would be more recognizable to white viewers. With African American audiences, Universal assumed there would be more previous knowledge about N.W.A., so the trailer centered on the group rather than individual members. (TIME)
Recently, Straight Outta Compton producer Ice Cube talked about not receiving a Best Picture nomination at this year’s Academy Awards.
“I never used to go anyways. You can’t boycott something that you never went to anyway. That’s kind of weird. I look at it like a horse race – it’s nothing to really put that much energy into like that. We don’t do movies for the industry. We do movies for the fans, for the people and the industry, you know, if they give you a trophy or not or pat you on the back or not, it’s nice but it’s not something that you should dwell on. We got accolades from our core fans, from our curious fans, people who didn’t even think they wanted to see that movie. I think an older generation got an understanding on why we did that kind of music and a younger generation got a history lesson and we got so much praise for that movie, so how can you be mad – it’s like crying about not having enough icing on your cake.” (“The Graham Norton Show”)
Cube dished on his personal issue with the Academy snubbing the mega hit in a separate interview days prior.
“I think we deserve Best Picture. Especially by them leaving two out. They usually pick ten movies. They picked eight this year,” Cube said in an interview. “I ain’t gonna kiss no a** for nothing. Maybe that is the problem. Or maybe we should’ve put a slave in Straight Outta Compton. I think that’s where we messed up. That’s where we messed up. Just one, random slave for the Academy members to recognize us as a real, black movie…The thing about it is that does not define us or. That award is cool. It’s cool to be recognized. But people recognized this movie back in August when it did $200 million at the box office.” (Power 105.1)
https://youtu.be/VwNDo–GJSI
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