The Best Man Holiday Grosses $30.5 Million – What It Means
News that The Best Man had stellar results at the box office over the weekend isn’t too surprising. The film earned $30.5 million in its weekend debut according to Box Office Mojo. Comparisons have been drawn to Think Like A Man, which ousted the Hunger Games from #1 at the box office in 2012 when it brought in $33.6 million its opening weekend. While The Best Man Holiday didn’t overtake Think Like A Man’s debut performance, its had the highest grossing opening weekend of any film with a predominately Black cast in 2013.
Baggage Claim, which came out in September 2013, grossed $9 million its opening weekend. Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions Of a Marriage Counselor, which came out in March 2013, grossed $21.6 million in ticket sales the weekend it made its debut. The Best Man Holiday may have performed better had viewers not been getting a higher than usual dose of films with Black casts over the past few years. The Black audience, which is usually starved for good representation on screen, is finally getting the opportunity to pick and choose what films to see.
The budget of The Best Man Holiday is listed at just $17 million at Box Office Mojo, so it already has a large profit margin after a $30.5 million opening weekend. Hollywood executives can’t possibly have failed to notice the low investment and high profit margins films with Black casts have had. This year really proves that Black actors and actresses do bring in profits. Whether you think it is positive or not, films with predominately Black casts don’t need huge Hollywood budgets, because Black audiences will readily support their favorite Black stars when given a halfway decent film.
Black actors and actresses will accept less pay (as indicated by the small budgets) because Hollywood pays them on their perceived ability to draw in audiences. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s how it worked last time I checked. If mainstream Hollywood begins snapping up Black actors and actresses to take advantage of the hole in the marketplace, do you think their pay will increase with the demand?
