Blues Brothers Beat Theater Racism

When "The Blues Brothers" was released in 1980, executives who controlled more than half the theaters in the country reportedly refused to book it because of its number of Black actors. Director John Landis later said one exhibitor, a man named Ted Mann, told him he would book the movie in Compton but not in Westwood because he did not want Black audiences there. The film opened in only 594 theaters, far below the 1,200 to 1,500 theaters common for major releases at the time. Despite that, it still became the 10th highest-grossing domestic film of 1980.

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