1-2-3…what would you do with 96 G’s?
For me, I would buyout theaters for the upcoming June 11 release of the Warner Bros. adaptation of the Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-winning musical In The Heights directed by Jon M. Chul.
Well, that’s not realistic because I do not have $96,000, but Gold House is doing something similar. The Asian and Pacific Islander-fronted nonprofit collective is partnering with National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) to launch #LatinxGoldOpen.
For those of y’all who don’t know, Gold House launched the Gold Open movement in 2017 to organize theater buyouts and movie tickets drives to help bolster box office sales for Asian films. Now, they are doing the same thing for their Latinx fam with #LatinxGoldOpen. In addition, more than 80 individuals and organizations have already committed to supporting #LatinxGoldOpen, including Eugenio Derbez, America Ferrera, Eva Longoria, Gemma Chan, Simu Liu, Bowen Yang, Awkwafina, Bao Nguyen, Zoe Saldana, Chelsea Rendon, Harry Shum Jr., Kelly Marie Tran, Mario Lopez, Aida Rodirguez, as well as the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment, the African American Film Critics Association, Define American and The Blackhouse Foundation.
This campaign is more than just putting coins into the box office piggy bank for In The Heights. It’s about amplifying Latinx representation in film. The Latinx community is wildly absent from film. In a study conducted by NALIP and USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative in 2019, only 4.5% of all 47,268 speaking or named characters across the last 12 years were Latino, as were a mere 3% of lead or co-lead actors in the top films from 2017 and 2018. This is a poor reflection of the real world representation of the Latinx community. 77% of U.S. states and territories have a population of Latinos greater than the percentage seen in films.
#LatinxGoldOpen continues the Gold House initiative which have included a #BlackandGoldOpen for the YA drama The Sun Is Also a Star which starred Yara Shahidi and Charles Melton. The crown jewel for Gold House is when they launched a #GoldOpen initiative for Chu’s groundbreaking Crazy Rich Asians in 2019 which broke records as becoming the highest-grossing romantic comedy in the past decade. Gold House has also thrown their support behind films such as Searching,Gook, Burning and Aquaman.
I have a gut feeling that In The Heights is going to make more than 96 G’s.
