Moviegoers expecting to catch a late showing of “Hancock” in Chaska earlier this week may have been surprised to hear Will Smith’s character speaking Spanish throughout the movie. It was no fluke.

Hancock is just one of seven movies the Rex Cinema is showing this fall in an attempt to capture a slice of the local Hispanic movie-going population.

“We always knew we had a large Latino crowd,” said Jeff Horne, general manager.

The Rex kicked off its Spanish movie experiment last month with “Kung Fu Panda.” It ran for a week before being replaced by “Iron Man.” Five more movies are planned from now through Nov. 6.

Horne said the fall is a great time of year to try something different.

“It’s an off time of year in terms of product,” he explained. “You get more leeway.”

 Horne managed to get his hands on seven movies either filmed in Spanish or dubbed in Spanish, though he admits that he was met with resistance. Chicago theaters have also tried to capture the Latino market without much luck, he said. Horne is hopeful they will have better results in Chaska.

“Not many people we know have tried this,” he said.

Horne has been working with La Picosa, a Spanish-English radio station based in Chaska, to pick the movies and promote them.

“We’ve given out a lot of passes,” said Horne. “And we’ve seen a lot of those passes come through.”

Paying customers have been harder to come by so far, though. Horne hopes that business will pick up as word gets out.

He is also working with area high schools to bring Spanish classes and clubs to the theater for the special run of movies.

But while students are great, Horne said their ultimate goal is to provide for what they believe is an underserved Latino market.

If that proves true and the local population responds, Spanish movies could find a home at the Rex, Horne said.  “We’d like to see if we could make a go of it on a regular basis.”   

-Mollee Francisco, staff writer