Last year, Latinos made up 17 percent of the population but accounted for 32 percent of frequent moviegoers (that is, folks who went to more than one movie a month). Blacks represent 12 percent of the population and were 12 percent of frequent moviegoers in 2013. Asians (and other minorities) — who make up 8 percent of the population — were 7 percent of frequent moviegoers.
(Frequent moviegoers are a key metric for the movie industry today because most theater owners get much of their revenue from repeat business. Concession stands and the astronomical price of that bag of popcorn you bought is a part of that, no doubt.)
In 2013’s box office, whites were underrepresented overall, in part because of a high percentage of African-American and “other” moviegoers who purchased more tickets in 2013 than 2012. (The MPAA groups Asians with “others.”)
Chris Dodd and John Fithian, who head the MPAA and National Association of Theatre Owners, said we’re seeing these increases because of 2013’s diverse roster of films, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“The year 2013 in the U.S. brought the highest-grossing Spanish-language movie of all time with Instructions Not Included. Perhaps even more telling, more movies in 2013 featured more black actors in important roles that drove more patrons to the theaters,” Fithian told theater owners at the CinemaCon convention. “That’s why we saw substantial growth in moviegoing for African-Americans and other minorities.”
But Instructions Not Included was just one film, and the trend of heavy Latino moviegoing goes back several years. In 2012, Latinos bought a quarter of all movie tickets sold, according to Nielsen data. Yet that same year, researchers at the University of Southern California found that of the 100 top-grossing films, only 4.2 percent of the speaking characters were Latino.
All this still doesn’t get to why Latinos account for so much in box office earnings. This Nielsen report says that Latinos are more likely than non-Hispanics to view heading to the movies as having some “positive cultural significance” — as a way to spend time with family or friends.