Latino Crossover Movies Ready for Breakout

"Marketing is key. While the demand for Latino product is strong, the marketing lags. It's not just about having the product in the stgores," Noriega reported at the Latino Entertainment & Video Expo held in May, 2005 in Pasadena, CA, "It's about having the right signage to go with the product and having the right marketing to let customers know that it's there."

Movies such as "The Motorcycle Diaries" and "Maria Full of Grace" are recent crossovers. With the growing numbers of mixed families the crossover market grows right along with the population. Latino families also like to mix traditional American movies with culture specific movies to accomodate their mixed lifestyles in urban America.

“They are still pretty much art-house films, even The Motorcycle Diaries,” says Noriega, who is also director of UCLA’s Chicano Research Center. “But still, films like these are moving in the direction that Spike Lee took. They get a lot of critical attention and people know the issue they are addressing.”

Source; Home Media Retailing, May 22-28, 2005

Chon Noriega is a professor of film/television and digital media at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), notes that while the latest roster of Latino films has garnered high praise from critics, that still doesn’t translate into box office smash hits.

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