CINEMA: TESTING THE FAITH

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In most ways The Preacher's Wife is as traditional a Christmas confection as fossilized fruitcake. It has a big budget, big stars and a heartwarming rendition of Joy to the World. The songs are sung by diva Whitney Houston, who plays the wife of a disillusioned minister. Her co-star, Denzel Washington, is a sexy angel who wants to save Houston's neighborhood church as well as her troubled marriage. On paper, the movie looks as if it has all the ingredients for a box-office slam dunk. But there's one thing missing: white people.

The executives who run Hollywood have long believed that white audiences stay away from black-themed movies--outside of the time-tested action genre, that is. At $60 million-plus, The Preacher's Wife is by far the costliest all-black picture ever produced, making it one of the industry's most closely watched films during this busy holiday season. Of course, even defining what a "black" film is can be tricky. Studios generally affix that label to a picture that not only has a predominantly black cast but also deals with African-American themes. Thus, for movie executives, an Eddie Murphy comedy like The Nutty Professor--a blockbuster that grossed $129 million from a diverse audience--doesn't count; Spike Lee movies do. So does Set It Off, the heist movie starring Queen Latifah that was a modest hit this fall, with grosses of $26 million, mostly from blacks.

Tom Sherak, chief of marketing at 20th Century Fox, says the industry used to assume that films drawing a largely African-American audience had a boxoffice ceiling of $40 million. Then came Fox's Waiting to Exhale, which was made for a relatively frugal $17 million and took in $65 million. But Sherak says the film didn't attract white audiences despite a hit sound-track album and the presence of Houston, who had already proved herself a box-office draw opposite Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard. "We tried to sell the story of four friends, not looking at color," Sherak remembers of the Waiting to Exhale marketing campaign. "But it didn't cross over. [Whites] felt like it was made for an African-American audience."

African-American filmmakers and critics contend that white audiences would cross color lines if Hollywood had enough faith to spend more money on quality black films. Quality is a subjective term, of course, but in the case of The Preacher's Wife, many industry insiders believe Disney has demonstrated that faith. Yet even those who have seen it and liked it are concerned about the film's commercial prospects. "It's a beautiful picture," says John Krier of Exhibitor Relations, a firm that tracks box-office results. Nonetheless, he says, several theater operators are worried. "How can they convince white people to see this picture? If you had the answer, you'd be worth a lot to Disney."