The 1990s saw the birth of a new kind of black cinema. These were films that, despite being produced for black audiences, had real budgets. They cost millions to make and upheld basic Hollywood production standards. True, the budgets of these films were, in comparison to those made for white audiences (default Americans), small—but compared to earlier black-made films for black markets, the budgets were gigantic. The black people portrayed in these films—which were, if not a romantic comedy/drama, a straight-up comedy or drama—tended to be middle- or upper-class and not preoccupied with racism.
Black 1990s cinema also featured a new breed of black talent that was eventually identified as “black Hollywood,” and its stars are now black-household names: Nia Long, Larenz Tate, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, Jada Pinkett Smith, Omar Epps, Ice Cube, and, of course, Regina Hall.
