THE OBENSON REPORT

Covering Cinema From All Across The African Diaspora

BOX OFFICE - Madea Rules The World!



Wow... just WOW!


$41 Million opening weekend for Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail.

I'm genuinely stunned! Just when I start to think that audiences are becoming a little weary of his shtick, they surprise me by shattering records, making this the largest opening for a Tyler Perry film!

Also, according to the numbers at Box Office Mojo, its the 5th highest opening of a film in winter, in motion picture box office history ever! That's incredible - considering that this is a film that opened on just over 2,000 screens... still a relatively high number, but, compared to other movies that have opened on a comparative number of screens, $41 Million is mighty hefty!


Clearly, his fan base continues to grow - it's no longer just those mostly African American Christian women who followed his plays on the theatre circuit. With numbers like this, surely one can assume that there's some cross-over appeal... or at least, a curiousity.

Whether it'll hold up in coming weeks, or quickly falter (assuming that those who wanted to see it, did so over the weekend), will be determined... in coming weeks.

I'm no fan of Tyler Perry's, but, I have to tip my hat at what he's been able to accomplish since his celluloid debut - Diary of A Mad Black Woman. He's got the attention of studio execs, and one could say, the American film going public in general - those who love him, and those who don't; not even a speed bump can do anything to stop this ramming bus!

He's given jobs to countless African American performers, both in front and behind the camera, who wouldn't be working otherwise. Surely, love him/hate him, that deserves some kind of recognition.

Given how prolific he's been in recent years, I'm sure we can expect yet another Tyler Perry film before 2009 expires!

Here are the rest of the numbers - specifically the top 10 (cume in parentheses):

1 - Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail $41,120,000
2 - Taken $11,400,000 ($95,153,000)
3 - Coraline $11,031,000 ($53,393,000)
4 - He's Just Not That Into You $8,540,000 ($70,083,000)
5 - Slumdog Millionaire $8,050,000 ($98,020,000)
6 - Friday the 13th $7,825,000 ($55,002,000)
7 - Confessions of a Shopaholic $7,019,000 ($27,654,000)
8 - Paul Blart: Mall Cop $7,000,000 ($121,380,000)
9 - Fired Up! $6,000,000 ($6,000,000)
10 - The International $4,450,000 ($17,017,000)

How many of these have you seen? I've seen exactly 1 of them - Slumdog Millionaire - and it wasn't as great as all the praise it's been getting led me to believe before I saw it.

So it goes...

6 comments:

  1. Karen said...
     

    Score! I'm super excited about Tyler Perry's strong box office opening. This is definitely good news for black cinema.

  2. Anonymous said...
     

    I agree with you solshine. It does do something for Black cinema. It continues to dumb it down and make people respect us as entertainer, but not artist. This is entertainment and not art. Sadly, we as African-Americans love it and we have yet to realize the difference. No critical acclaim for this sh..

  3. The Wendilicious Wonder said...
     

    Um, ditto what Jeremiah said.

    As long as someone's making some money, let's stereotype African Americans a little more! So this time we'll have angry, in your face black pensioners rather than your "yessum" mammy...

    Sadly, I feel the same way about movies like the new Black Dynamite movie. Those kinds of films are called BlaXPLOITATION for a reason!

    Exploit the anger and stereotypes of black people for the entertainment of one and all. Oh, and negroes will love it to boot!

    Kerching!!

    Feeling a little Bamboozled, anyone...?

    *sigh*

  4. Sergio said...
     

    Am I the only one who gets sick to his stomach with Tyler Perry? No better way to make money than to castrate the black man and put him in a dress. The "femininzation" of black men in the media is repulsive to me. That's why you've got so-called black men today acting more like women than men, like for example wearing earrings. When exactly did black men start doing that? Drives me up the wall when I see that. I want to rip them off their ears.

    Perry just goes to show how much black men are hated. The more they degrade themrselves, the more people love it

  5. Anonymous said...
     

    I agree with Sergio. I get sick to my stomache with this Tyler Perry talk. It makes me feel at times that there is no hope for filmmakers who are trying to do something to advance cinema by Black people.

    We must admit that it is difficult when art of any type is really quite foreign to Black people

  6. Anonymous said...
     

    But Sergio pirates were earrings.

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9080359020756769973&ei=6XWjSf2qMIfe-wGil4H3BA&q=pirates+argh

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