No one was surprised that Thor: The Dark World held on to the top spot at the box-office this weekend, though its $38.5 million gross marks a considerable drop from last week’s $86.1 million opening.
What was truly surprising was the triumph of The Best Man Holiday, which exploded into second place with an extremely respectable $30.6 million opening despite middling reviews and being a sequel to a 14-year-old, largely forgotten dramedy. Clearly, this is the Tyler Perry effect, in which an underrepresented audience flocks to a film that offers such representation. And it’s particularly encouraging to see it happening for a movie that wasn’t made by Tyler Perry.
I’m just hoping Taye Diggs and Terrence Howard get a real boost out of this. Not that they aren’t proper movie stars already, but they’re rarely credited with drawing audiences on their own. This makes it clear they have fans who’ll show up to see them in the right projects. (Hell, I’m one of those fans.) Let’s see what happens next, shall we?