The latest installment of the "Fast and Furious" franchise cruised to victory lane in the box offices during the Memorial Day weekend, and Latino movie goers may have had a big hand in that.
"Fast and Furious 6," starring Vin Diesel, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Michelle Rodriguez, drew in $120 million over the weekend, making it one of the best-selling Memorial Day movie openings ever. Part of the reason the sixth installment of the franchise did so well might have been thanks to the large Hispanic demographic that was drawn to it, which was roughly 32 percent of its audience, according to Yahoo! Movies.com.
Latinos may have been drawn to the movie thanks to the presence of the sultry Rodriguez, a Dominican-Puerto Rican star, and an emphasis of Spanish dialogue in the film.
"I love all the fans and if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be in 'Fast 6,'" Rodriguez told reporters via a recent Google Hangout interview.
However, the movie made sure to include key stars from across all demographics, including Paul Walker, Ludacris, Johnson and Sung Kang, something which Universal Studios made a point of featuring during their marketing of the flick.
"It's not just Hispanics, it's the diversity in general that helped this movie become so popular," Universal's distribution chief Nikki Rocco told TheWrap Monday.
This isn't the first time that Universal has made a profit thanks to Hispanics at the box office. Earlier this year, director Guillermo del Toro's "Mama" film made $32 million during Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, Hispanics making up 47 percent of the audience. And according to the Motion Picture Association of America, Latinos comprise about 26 percent of domestic movie ticket sales from the 2012 statistics.