Christmas comes early for 'Best Man Holiday' at the box office

If anyone still needs proof that black folks do go to the movies, I present the following evidence: The Best Man Holiday grosses over $30 million this weekend -- coming very close to besting Thor: The Dark World, which earned $38 million. While everyone seems shocked that The Best Man Holiday, a sequel to 1999's The Best Man, did so well, I'm not.

For starters, black audiences are always hungry to see themselves on the big screen -- and not just in a Tyler Perry movie. Case in point: Lee Daniel's The Butler grossed over $100 million. That The Best Man Holiday featured such an attractive cast playing characters who don't live in the 'hood and who are upwardly mobile professionals sure didn't hurt.

Secondly, while Terrence Howard, Taye Diggs and Morris Chestnut may not be A-listers like Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Hugh Jackman, they're huge names in the black community. For the ladies, Chestnut is a grown man chocolate version of Taylor Lautner from the Twilight films whenever he takes off his shirt. Studio heads need to understand this. Put all of these actors in a film together and you're talking box office gold. Despite black films making film studios green money, there's still this shock and awe reaction whenever one of those movies does well.

No one, like, says, "Wow, I can't believe The Amazing Spider-man kicked butt at the box office this weekend" or "Damn, Man of Steel really overperformed when it grossed a gazillion dollars."


Moreover, The Best Man, although it was made 15 years ago, remains an extremely popular film, one of those movies that's always seems to be airing on BET. While I don't collect a ton of DVDs (there are very few films I enjoy watching over and over), "The Best Man" is one of them. Probably seen it over 50 times. That's because the story doesn't get old and Hollywood still doesn't make enough ensemble films starring black actors.

Not surprisingly, word is director Malcolm Lee has been approached about a third installment. To be honest, I'm a little nervous about that one. If you saw the third Hangover movie, you know what I'm talking about. Sometimes there can be too much of a good thing. Still, if there is a third "The Best Man" movie, I'd be one of the first in line to see it. And not surprised if it had another impressive opening weekend.

Black folks, after all, do go to the movies.

Here's another shocker: We buy popcorn, too.