Will The New African American Film Jumping The Broom Be A Flop Or A Hit?
The new black film Jumping The Broom will be released tomorrow but the trailer the film seems boring.
Since Jumping The Broom only cost $7 million dollars to produce, it will make a profit.
However, I think Jumping The Broom will probably be less successful than Tyler Perry’s Madea films.
Jumping The Broom seems to be trying too hard to challenge the so-called negative stereotypes in society about black people.
The British/Jamaican scholar Stuart Hall wrote about the construction of binaries in relation to blackness.
According to Hall, images have multiple meanings. Jumping The Broom is clearly attempting to
present the positive image that black people are wealthy and not poor. I agree with one message of Jumping The Broom, that blacks are often
presented in Hollywood films to be poor people. Of course, blacks are not pathological, but Jumping The Broom is an exaggeration
of blackness. Hall says the positive stereotypes are not actually positive because very few people can “fit into” this category. The negative stereotypes of
course is negative and that’s not good either. Hall advocates looking at blackness through a third theory called the binary of representation, to
acknowledge both the good and bad stereotypes and subvert them. Hall acknowledges that he doesn’t have all the answers.
Hall believes the binary of representation is important to understand that black people we are multi dimensional human beings.
The plot for Jumping The Broom is very formulaic, it is basically about two black families one rich and the other is lower middle class.
I love Loretta Devine and Angela Bassett they are excellent actresses but they deserve better roles than Jumping The Broom.
According to Forbes Magazine, Tyler Perry made over $125 million dollars last year.
Even though Jumping The Broom is not a Tyler Perry film, he lurks in the shadows due to his incredible power in reaching the black audience.
The Hollywood studios want to reach the urban audience and make money. I am just not sure Jumping The Broom will become a huge success?
Jumping The Broom is a perfect example of the myopic representations of blackness in pop culture.
Where are the black science fiction, detective, or psychological dramatic films?
Jumping The Broom is just a tired romantic comedy that is very predictable.
Gayblackcanada 
This movie is going to flop. I have talked to so many of my friends and none of them are talking about seeing this film. I am sick and tired of all the garbage black films which have come out in the the last few years. Uppity negroes in black holllywood are trying to make black people feel bad about not having money. All this glamor in films with black people living large. Most black people don’t have money like that. The film has to reflect the times. A majority of black people are suffering financially. Unemployed, receiving food stamps, are single parents or are locked up. Uppity negroes are trying to runaway from the reality of our lives. There is nothing wrong with not having a lot money. But there is something wrong with being a drug dealer, a murder, and a thief. We need more films which have more depth and are realistic. This movie maybe picked up by someone buying weed from a homeboy named pookie who is selling this film on bootleg. Black Hollywood needs to do better.
Lisa I agree and disagree with your statement. Of course, there are young blacks that have gotten in trouble with the law. However, there are also many young blacks that are indeed attending university and college in large numbers. Jumping The Broom appears to be trying too hard to prove something. The problem I have with Jumping The Broom is it is not really challenging the racism in Hollywood. Jumping the Broom is trying to make a point, that yes there are black people that are wealthy and don’t live in the hood.
I feel Jumping The Broom is too uppity. Hollywood has such a mypoic image of blackness that needs to be changed. There is so much richness and diversity in the black community that needs to be explored in cinema. The representations are too myopic and I believe they are sometimes deleterious.
I believe that there should be a balance in black cinema because the black community is not a monolithic group. There are wealthy blacks, middle class blacks, and lower income blacks. The problem is, Hollywood seems to go the extreme at both ends of the binary.
I agree that Jumping The Broom seems to be an attempt to challenge the Tyler Perry type of films but this movie just seems false to me. Jumping The Broom doesn’t seem like a film that is targeting black folks this movie looks like it is for a white audience. The problem I have with Jumping The Broom is the wealthy blacks aren’t upper class they are rich. I think very few people regardless of race are as rich as Angela Bassett’s character in the film. I am not sure many blacks will be able to relate to Jumping The Broom?
Oh i didn’t mean to insinuate there are not successful African Americans and young people who are not going to college trying to raise their standard of living. But the problem is especially in America, their stories don’t do too well at the box office. Unless it involves stoylines and characters the black audience can identify with, it will flop. The “Best Man” was a great example of this. Very successful African Americans portrayed, but the characters and storyline we connected with. But the Best Man was made in 1999. Times have changed in the film and television industry. Black America has changed also. Black reality t.v is more successful than black films. Why? People don’t want to admit it, but a high percentage of black people who watch t.v and go see films love ghetto drama and ghetto stories. That is why Tyler Perry is cleaning everybody’s clock at the box office. He understands the black audiences. I am not saying there is not an audience for other types of black films. But the film has to be on point from A to Z.
Hello Lisa thanks for the clarification and I appreciate you taking the time to make your comment.