My answer to the question above is that film studios have the opportunity to simultaneously entertain and inform their audience. By becoming more inclusive, the film industry can help dispel negative social stereotypes. I supported my claim by using Clark's model to establish a trend in film to hopefully show that film is moving in a positive direction with the film Coco as an example. Coco gives it's Mexican audience the satisfaction of long-awaited representation. It also proved that a film can be very successful with a cast made entirely of minority characters. Director Lee Unkrich's decision to create a culturally conscious film was made even before Mexico and its people became subject to false accusations and negative stereotypes in the 2017 presidential campaign. Unkrich's hope for Coco is "that [it] can maybe do its own small part to dissolve and erode some of the barriers that there are between us."
Although I couldn't find specific statistics breaking down the box office audience by race, I did find the total gross income in countries outside the United States. I was surprised to see that Coco's highest foreign gross total is China at almost $1.9 million, followed by Mexico at $5.7 million. The reason this is so surprising is because the Chinese censor board members made an exception to show Coco since some of the themes are banned in the country. This just goes to show how film can be a window into other cultures.
Coco is just the beginning. This progress in representation is limited to children's animation film and a single aspect of one culture, but it is a step in the right direction. Other major film studios will see Coco's success and make more inclusive films.
Sources:
Coco. (2018). Box Office Mojo. Retrieved from http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&id=pixar1117.htm
Trivia. (2017). Coco. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2380307/trivia?ref_=ttcc_sa_1
Ugwu, R. (2017). How Pixar Made Sure ‘Coco’ Was Culturally Conscious. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/19/movies/coco-pixar-politics.html
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