Latin America Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Last November Lionsgate created Panamax Films, a division they hoped would disprove Hollywood's long-held assumption that the massive Spanish-speaking population in the US is not a market for mainstream, Spanish-language films. To run the new company, Lionsgate hired Jim McNamara, a native of Panama who was once president and CEO of Telemundo, and his new company's goal is to "develop ... straightforward commercial Latin films," as opposed to the handful of niche films from Latin America that are released in the US each year.

Lionsgate's Panamax experiment begins on Friday, when the romantic comedy La Mujer de mi hermano is released in about 200 theaters. While that number is a far cry from the thousands of screens that major releases hit on their debut weekends, Panamax is fully committed to finding that Spanish-speaking audience, and even pushed the film's release back by several months in order to allow more time for advertising. When the film, which features an ethnically diverse cast, was released in Latin American last year, it reached the top of the box office in several countries, and was the highest-grossing R-rated film in Mexico during 2005.

Though every conversation about Brokeback Mountain these days inevitably includes some discussion of how that damn homophobia (as opposed to, you know, the movie's quality) cost it the best picture Oscar, the reality of the situation is that audiences in the US are incredibly open to homosexuality in the movies, at least when compared to their counterparts in Latin America. Advertising in that region is carefully avoiding the gay elements of the film, and focuses instead on the awards (at least in Mexico, the release date was pushed back to follow the Oscar ceremony) it has received, as well as the general idea of romance. Additionally, based on a recommendation by Focus Features, Videocine, the film's Mexican distributor, is not advertising the movie in gay publications.

Now, while I understand that a conservative society might be troubled by Brokeback's content, it's a little unclear to me why tricking audiences into seeing the movie is a good idea. Well, actually, it's totally clear, just evil - even people who run screaming into the lobby at the first sign of manlove paid for a ticket, which is the bottom line for distributors. But why not advertise in gay publications? Readers will be interested in the movie, and it's not as if those who are opposed to homosexuality would be flipping through Out, see an ad, and decide not to see the movie.

If any readers wander in from Latin America, it'd be great to hear some first-hand reports of how the movie is being both advertise and received where you are.