Nationwide, USA - A new study finds that 81 percent of the movies seen by African-Americans don’t prominently feature an African-American cast, lead actor or storyline.

Matthew Barnhill, senior vice president of market research at BET Networks, said: “The African-American community has diverse tastes, an appetite for quality movies and entertainment that can range from blockbuster mainstream action films to African-American romantic comedies."

BET conducted the study. BET’s programming is aimed at African-American viewers.

In the study, only three of the top films in 2010-11 mentioned by African-American moviegoers had a predominantly African-American cast or storyline, or a lead African-American actor, according to the study.

The study shows the film genres that gained the most money from African-Americans are:

• Comedy ($3.6 billion).
• Action adventure ($2.8 billion).
• Romance ($1.6 billion).
• Science fiction/fantasy horror ($1.2 billion).
• Animation ($1.2 billion).
• Drama ($1.1 billion).
• Mystery/suspense ($1.1 billion).
• Children/teens/family ($835 million).

The study reveals some of the key characteristics of African-American moviegoers:

• On average, African-Americans go to the movies 13.4 times a year, compared with 11 times a year for general moviegoers.
• Sixty-two percent of African-Americans say they’ll see a movie several times.
• For African-Americans, the top three sources of information about movies are TV commercials (65 percent), in-theater movie trailers (55 percent) and recommendations from family and friends (54 percent).
• 39 percent of African-American movie patrons are 16 to 24 years old.
• 30 percent of African-American moviegoers are college graduates.
• 35 percent of African-American moviegoers make at least $50,000 a year.

BET, a division of Viacom Inc., performed the study through an online panel of 2,500 African-Americans, Hispanics and whites ages 16 to 49. The study was done in March and April 2011.