Will Hollywood Learn From <em>Hidden Figures</em>’s Success?
has been the breakout film of 2017 thus far.Starring three African American women (played by Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monáe, and Octavia Spencer), it focuses on an unheralded piece of American history: the work of black female mathematicians and engineers at NASA in the 1960s. Released to , seems destined for a few Academy Award nominations next week. Since it expanded nationwide, it has spent two weeks at the top of the box office, ahead of big-budget films like , , , and. Made for a comparatively small $25 million, the film is to gross at least $100 million in the United States alone, posting a very healthy profit for its studio, 20th Century Fox. The viewing public’s desire for a film like is indisputable. So why does Hollywood make so few of them?
