The action flick’s trailer caused a major stir online, but the studio is refusing to screen the movie for critics and promo has been seriously lacking. Taraji deserves far better.
Proud Mary might not be that proud after all.
The Taraji P. Henson-starrer was one of the year’s most anticipated films when the trailer dropped last year. Henson’s turn as Mary, a hitwoman working for an organized crime family in Boston, seemed like the black response to Atomic Blonde—that is until this year rolled around, where it seems like Sony and Screen Gems have completely dropped the ball on promoting it.
Proud Mary is out this Friday, and social media has been flooded not with excitement for the film but confusion as to why it’s not being pushed harder. Is it a case of a studio underselling a black film, as is customary in Hollywood? Or does Sony want to hide the fact that the film might not be very good?
It’s not screening for critics this week, so don’t expect any advance reviews of Proud Mary. Furthermore, critics attending the film’s press junket weren’t allowed to screen the film first, so interviews with Taraji will have to remain vague as it’s a little hard to discuss a film that you haven’t seen yet with an actress.
Henson herself has even voiced frustration with the promotion of the film.
In a pre-Christmas interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Henson said she’s been “begging and pleading my connections and doing whatever I can to make this movie the best it can be. I don’t just put my name on stuff just to say it; I get down and dirty. [Studios] never expect [black films] to do well overseas. Meanwhile, you go overseas and what do you see? People trying to look like African-Americans with Afros and dressing in hip-hop fashions. To say that black culture doesn’t sell well overseas, that’s a lie. Somebody just doesn’t want to do their job and promote the film overseas. Do you not have people streaming my Christmas specials in Australia? Come on, y’all! I don’t understand the thinking. Send me over there, and if it fails, then we don’t do it again, but why not try? If I knew this movie was gonna make money domestically, I would try to get more money overseas. It’s business!”
Traditionally, Hollywood has blamed lack of interest in black films overseas as the reason why they don’t promote them there. But just last year, Get Out raked in big money overseas—as did Hidden Figuresthe year before—and historically, films like Coming to America, Beverly Hills Cop 2, Independence Day, and Bad Boys 2 have, too. If anything, it’s a systemic problem of assuming black films undersell in America and in turn, fail overseas. Henson starred in Hidden Figures and her television drama Empire screens internationally, so why not develop her into a burgeoning international box-office star?
Proud Mary might not be that proud after all.
The Taraji P. Henson-starrer was one of the year’s most anticipated films when the trailer dropped last year. Henson’s turn as Mary, a hitwoman working for an organized crime family in Boston, seemed like the black response to Atomic Blonde—that is until this year rolled around, where it seems like Sony and Screen Gems have completely dropped the ball on promoting it.
Proud Mary is out this Friday, and social media has been flooded not with excitement for the film but confusion as to why it’s not being pushed harder. Is it a case of a studio underselling a black film, as is customary in Hollywood? Or does Sony want to hide the fact that the film might not be very good?
It’s not screening for critics this week, so don’t expect any advance reviews of Proud Mary. Furthermore, critics attending the film’s press junket weren’t allowed to screen the film first, so interviews with Taraji will have to remain vague as it’s a little hard to discuss a film that you haven’t seen yet with an actress.
Henson herself has even voiced frustration with the promotion of the film.
In a pre-Christmas interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Henson said she’s been “begging and pleading my connections and doing whatever I can to make this movie the best it can be. I don’t just put my name on stuff just to say it; I get down and dirty. [Studios] never expect [black films] to do well overseas. Meanwhile, you go overseas and what do you see? People trying to look like African-Americans with Afros and dressing in hip-hop fashions. To say that black culture doesn’t sell well overseas, that’s a lie. Somebody just doesn’t want to do their job and promote the film overseas. Do you not have people streaming my Christmas specials in Australia? Come on, y’all! I don’t understand the thinking. Send me over there, and if it fails, then we don’t do it again, but why not try? If I knew this movie was gonna make money domestically, I would try to get more money overseas. It’s business!”
Traditionally, Hollywood has blamed lack of interest in black films overseas as the reason why they don’t promote them there. But just last year, Get Out raked in big money overseas—as did Hidden Figuresthe year before—and historically, films like Coming to America, Beverly Hills Cop 2, Independence Day, and Bad Boys 2 have, too. If anything, it’s a systemic problem of assuming black films undersell in America and in turn, fail overseas. Henson starred in Hidden Figures and her television drama Empire screens internationally, so why not develop her into a burgeoning international box-office star?
