Where are movies for Hispanics?

One of Hollywood’s most underserved audiences is also its most insatiable.

Last weekend, Eugenio Derbez’s “How to Be a Latin Lover” hit No. 2 at the box office with a better-than-expected $12.3 million, drawing an audience that was 89% Latino. The movie bested Emma Watson and Tom Hanks’ critically derided newcomer “The Circle” ($9 million) and finished not far behind the blockbuster “The Fate of the Furious” (No. 1 for a third weekend with $19.9 million). But the comedy’s overperformance shouldn’t shock anyone.

Latinos accounted for 21% of all tickets sold last year, compared to 14% for both African-Americans and Asians, according to Motion Picture Association of America’s Theatrical Market Statistics. Yet a study by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism found that in 2015, only 5.3% of characters in 800 movies examined were Latino — far fewer than white (73.7%) or black (12.2%) characters, and only slightly better than Asians (3.9%).

Hispanics want what all moviegoers crave: to find their faces in mainstream blockbusters and have their stories told by movies that take them and their culture seriously.

“Most Latinos that I know want to see everything,” says Alex Nogales, president/CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, citing Jordan Peele’s horror smash “Get Out,” which has a message about what it means to be black in America, as the type of movie that’s missing for Hispanic audiences.