‘Red Tails’ earned $19.1 Million at the Box Office during its opening weekend, placing it securely at No.2 in the weekend chart, one spot behind the long awaited ‘Underworld’ sequel, ‘Awakening’.
Starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard, ‘Red Tails’ follows the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of black pilots who fought on the front lines in the segregated U.S. Air Force during World War II. The film is directed by Anthony Hemingway, best known for his critically acclaimed television direction, who makes his feature film directorial debut in this big-budget blockbuster.
Prolific film director George Lucas, who best known as the creator of the ‘Star Wars’ saga, started developing ‘Red Tails’ in 1988 after first hearing the story of the Tuskegee Airmen from a friend. The project suffered numerous setbacks and delays, which Lucas attributed to racism in the film industry.
Speaking about the delays, Lucas told Jon Stewart, “It’s because it’s an all-black movie. There’s no major white roles in it at all… I showed it to all of them and they said no. We don’t know how to market a movie like this.”
After suffering repeated rejection, 67-year-old Lucas took on the film as a passion-project, funding it to the tune of almost $100 Million ($58 Million for production, $35 Million for distribution) out of his own pocket.
The strong debut comes as a surprise to many analysts, who believed the film would not do particularly well due to limited promotion. Hype around the film was slow to build until popular actor/producer/director Tyler Perry publicly endorsed it, saying: “We should pull together and get behind this movie. Not just African Americans, but all of us,” causing a surge in views of the film’s trailer on YouTube.
Other celebrities began lending support to the film after Perry’s endorsement, including Oprah Winfrey, who tweeted her 9 million followers saying: “I Hope u’all support the film #RedTails this wknd. Talk to George Lucas all about it on NEXT CHAPTER this SUNDAY.”
Last week, Lucas told USA Today he was worried his actions could have negative consequences for black filmmakers, saying, “I realize that by accident I’ve now put the black film community at risk” by producing ‘Red Tails’, whose $58 Million budget exceeds almost every all-black production in the history of film.
He went on to say: “If this doesn’t work, there’s a good chance you’ll stay where you are for quite a while. It’ll be harder for you guys to break out of that [low-budget] mold. But if I can break through with this movie, then hopefully there will be someone else out there saying let’s make a prequel and sequel, and soon you have more Tyler Perrys out there.”
Watch the trailer for ‘Red Tails’ below:
