I'd say that the big story this weekend is how well Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection did at the box office, with its predominantly Caucasian cast – a rarity for a Madea movie.

And, well, it did quite well actually, grossing $26.3 million on its opening weekend – the 3rd highest opening for a Madea movie, and the 4th highest opening for a Tyler Perry movie (he's directed 12 movies).

And as is usual for Tyler Perry movies that have opened in this range, the film will likely end up with a box office tally of about $50+ million.

The film is listed with a budget of $20 million, so, not counting P&A costs, it's already made back its production budget, and then some. So another win for not only Mr Perry but for Lionsgate as well. 

What does this mean? Expect more Madea movies – especially those with multi-racial casts. 

The other big win for the weekend, but which really wasn't at all a surprise, was Beasts Of The Southern Wild, which grossed $220,000; but keep in mind that it opened on just 4 screens nationwide, averaging about $42,000 per screen. To put into some context, the next highest average per screen was the number 1 film for the weekend, Ted, at $16,700 (it ended up grossing over $54 million, which actually surprised me). 

On the specialty side… The Intouchables continues to do well in limited release, grossing about $2.5 million to date.

The rest of the story below…