Do we have to talk about Tyler Perry? Of course, we do especially now that he has a new film out Acrimony starring Taraji. P. Henson his second R rated film after For Colored Girls and clearly an attempt to go into a different, more adult direction for him. Since he first came on the screen in 2005 he has had his fervent supporters as well as detractors, but you can’t deny he has maintained a devoted and loyal audience for over a decade However the question is of late is are they still around and in what numbers?
His film output has diminished over the past few years as the box office results of his later films have declined in comparison to his earlier output, and he has concentrated more on producing TV programs. But he had something of a comeback when 2016′s Boo! A Madea Halloween went on to gross $73.2 million, making it the second-biggest grossing film of his film career. However, the sequel last year’s Boo! grossed some $25 million less than it’s predecessor.
Still, believe it or not, when you looks at the total box office output of all his films combined since 2005, and with inflation added converted to today’s dollars, his movies have grossed just over $1 billion dollars domestically so he’s got an audience. But are they still there and especially now with so many other options when it comes to black people on the screen such as Black Panther, Hidden Figures, Get Out, Girls Trip, Moonlight and all the other films that were unimaginable just a few years ago?
For Acrimony, Perry along with Henson, made the rounds of the TV talk shows last week discussing that the film was only shot in eight days. Now if that was/is a good thing or bad thing, we’ll let you decide.
But despite all that, just how did Acrimony do? Well, the results were mixed. The good news was that it came in second this week after Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, and it actually beat Black Panther by almost $6 million. However, the bad news is that with an $17 million opening, that makes Acrimony the fourth-worst opening for any Perry film to-date. And if past performance is anything to measure with an opening like that, Acrimony should on to gross somewhere round $37-40 million before all is said and done. That’s not bad, especially for a film that was made on an obviously very limited budget on an incredibly short schedule. But that’s nowhere what his films used to make a couple of years ago, grossing $20 to 35 million more on average than that on a regular basis. But obviously, a lot of people still think there’s some gas left in the tank now that Perry has a new deal with Paramount and will soon start on his next film.
As mentioned earlier, Spielberg’s attempt to regain his youth, Ready Player One, opened at No. 1 with $53.2 million which is the biggest weekend opening for any his films since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 2008. Black Panther landed in third place with a domestic total of $650.7 million, which is now currently the fifth-biggest grossing film domestically and as mentioned last week, will soon easily surpass Jurassic World and Titanic to become the third biggest ever and it’s now moved up to become the 11th biggest grossing film worldwide to date.
Last week No. 1 film Pacific Rim Uprising is down for the count dropping huge to fifth place with $9 million for the weekend and $45.6 total. A Wrinkle in Time appears to be running out of stream domestically, but will still make at least $90-91 million while it still opens up slowly overseas. So far its international box office total to-date is $21 million with Russia still the biggest grossing country and Spain second.
Full list:
1) Ready Player One WB $41,210,000 Total: $53,215,000
2) Tyler Perry’s Acrimony LGF $17,100,000
3) Black Panther BV $11,263,000 Total: $650,699,634
4) I Can Only Imagine RAtt. $10,750,685 Total: $55,576,022
5) Pacific Rim Uprising Uni. $9,205,000 Total: $45,670,820
6) Sherlock Gnomes Par. $7,000,000 Total: $22,820,646
7) Love, Simon Fox $4,800,000 Total: $32,140,794
8) Tomb Raider WB $4,700,000 Total: $50,502,178
9) A Wrinkle in Time BV $4,694,000 Total: $83,250,414
10) Paul, Apostle of Christ Sony $3,500,000 Total: $11,530,838
11) Isle Of Dogs FoxS $2,810,000 Total: $5,917,274
12) God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness PFR $2,630,000
