Some say movie poster is racist

An advertising decision by Universal Pictures for its movie "Couples Retreat" has some in the UK crying racism.

The film follows four couples who go on a retreat in hopes of fixing their relationships, and the posters released in the U.S. for the movie show all four couples. But The Huffington Post reports that actors Faizon Love and Kali Hawk, who are both African American, are mysteriously missing from the movie posters in the British ads ( see pictures of the two posters ).

Some in Britain are outraged and are questioning whether the decision to omit Love and Hawk was based on their race.

In response, a Universal spokesman told the Daily Mail that the studio aimed "to simplify the poster to actors who are most [recognizable] in international markets." The studio added that "it regretted causing offense and has abandoned plans to use the revised poster in other countries."

Films starring African-American actors often don't perform as well internationally as they do in the U.S.

"The international marketplace is still fairly racist," James Ulmer, proprietor of the Ulmer Scale, which compiles input from about 100 international film professionals in a periodic rating of stars' "bankability," told the New York Times in 2007.

Ulmer added in the article that Will Smith, who some regard as the top box office attraction in the U.S., ranks 12th on his scale.