Credit: Girls Trip Movie
Girls Trip box office numbers for opening weekend may have surprised critics, but we knew the flick was going to be a hit. The movie, labeled a “raunch-com” by Washington Post, raked in an estimated $30.4 million this past weekend, coming in second place at the box office behind World War II drama Dunkirk. And Girls Trip only took $20 million to make.
These numbers speak, again, to the fallacy that African American-led films can’t draw big numbers to theaters. A fact, Ava Duvernay facetiously pointed out on Twitter Sunday afternoon.
History: Film centering four black women having fun with no big cause, mission, problem or catastrophe hits big at box office.
Hollywood: pic.twitter.com/nlqGSGogZ2
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) July 23, 2017
According to Boxofficemojo.com, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett, Regina Hall, and Tiffany Haddish drew an audience that was 79% female, 59% African American, and 50% under the age of 30.
Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at comScore, told CNN the movie broke what the outlet calls summer’s R-rated comedy curse, referring to films like Baywatch, Snatched, The House, and Rough Night —the white alternative to Girls Trip — which fell way below box office expectations.
“Funny is funny. And it’s a really funny movie,” Universal’s President of Domestic Distribution Nick Carpou told Variety.com, pointing out that achieving $30 million at the box office is becoming increasingly rare for comedies. “Our four leads are excellent. If they make you laugh you’re likely to tell your friends. That’s what’s happening here.”
Carpou is right. I personally went on my own crusade, texting any and everyone I could to go watch the film. And a friend’s mom told us our preacher from back home somehow managed to reference the funny flick in his sermon. Not sure how that worked, but clearly he was spreading one word or another.
Girls Trip‘s opening was just $3.3 million shy of producer Will Packer’s 2012 Think Like a Man, which led to a sequel two years later, and brought in the same numbers as director Malcolm D. Lee’s 2013 Best Man Holiday which also immediately got the green light for a third part. Perhaps we’ll see these ladies reunite on the big screen again soon — or at least see more films like it.
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