The Best Man Holiday did exceptionally well in the box office this weekend, raking in an estimated $30.6 million. It was second only to Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World, which is in its second weekend.
This is just the latest in a string of successes for “Black films” this year. Hopefully, this denotes a shift in the attitude surrounding films with predominantly Black casts. It would be wonderful to live in a world where the term “Black films” doesn’t even exist and a good movie with a Black cast is simply a good movie.
Although being second place in its opening weekend is a wonderful accolade, Buzzfeed took a closer look into the numbers and yielded some more impressive stats:
• On Friday, The Best Man Holiday grossed roughly $200,000 more than Thor: The Dark World, indicating it was a genuine “must see” for its core audience.
• That core audience: 75% female, 63% 35 and older, and 87% African-American — rarely do any of these three appear as the main demo for a box office success in modern Hollywood, and even more rarely do they all appear together.
• Every demographic, meanwhile, out-and-out loved the film: The film earned an equally rare A+ from the audience polling firm CinemaScore — and that’s from men and women, both over and under 25 years old.
• Over the full weekend, The Best Man Holiday had the best per theater average among all wide releases, with $15,100 per location.
Basically, The Best Man Holiday is kind of a big deal, especially given that it’s reprising a story that was first introduced 14 years ago.
One important distinction that was made is that the many of the successful films with Black casts were also good movies. We’re known to pour money into some — pardon my language — “coontastic messes,” but films like 42, The Butler, and 12 Years A Slave have been successful without the stereotypical antics.
Let’s toast to more African Americans on screen who better reflect who we are. I can’t wait to see more.