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Tyler Perry Beats out Tim Burton at Box Office

September 14, 2009

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RPRN) 09/14/09 — 9/09/perry.jpg">9 Does only $11M
By Keith Williams

Perry as Good in Drag as Milton Berle ever was

- I Can Do Bad All by Myself, the latest dramedy from drag queen extraordinaire Tyler Perry transgendered an estimated $24 million at 2255 nightclubs this weekend, Tim Burton’s 9 scared up $10.8 million at 1661 zipper factories, Sorority Row failed to scare anyone with $5.2 million at 2665 campuses, leaving Kate Beckinsale’s Whiteout a complete wipeout, barely thawing $5 million at 2745 arctic outposts.

Despite shooting into the top position on its first week of release, writer/director/star Tyler Perry’s latest exhibited the same kind of depression almost all the other new releases displayed, bar 9, opening below par by even his standards. Phenomenon is still the only word that comes to mind regarding this particular oeuvre, since Perry’s work is virtually unknown not only in the rest of the world but also vast sections of America itself.

Like some bizarre version of the UK’s (once) most famous cinematic drag queen, Old Mother Riley, his films seem to hit the bell for a certain demographic, in this case female Afro-American moviegoers, but just about no-one else. Without having seen any of his films, it’s hard to say whether ICDBABM’s lower than usual take is because it’s good, bad, or indifferent, or even if the appeal of his character of Madea is waning, but still, to beat the latest from Joel Silver, Tim Burton and the Twilight people is something of an accomplishment in itself.

9 was the new 2, with this animated apocalyptic fantasy raking in healthy takings on far fewer screens than those which took less. Produced by Burton and Timur Bekmambetov, director of Nightwatch/Daywatch and the amazing Wanted, and featuring a starry voice cast including Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly and Martin Landau, the only surprise here was that it wasn’t in 3D. Since opening to $3 million last Wednesday, it has now accrued $15.2 million, no Pixar here, but encouraging figures for a darker kind of “cartoon” than multiplexes are usually accustomed to. Welcome to the top ten, director Shane Acker, shake hands with Neill Blomkamp, director of the other 9 in the charts. Rob Marshall, director of the next 9 at Christmas must be praying this figure turns out to be as lucky and successful for him too.

Blowing up Nazis followed at 3 with Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds scalping another $6.5 million on a 43.7% decline, All About Steve skidded by 48.4% for $5.8 million (no proposal here), The Final Destination started going badly out of focus with a 54.7% drop in demand for 3D glasses, with $5.6 million adding up to $58 million so far.

At 6, Sorority Row, a remake of 1983’s House on Sorority Row, died even faster than the victims in the movie. Above average for its time, the original is now largely forgotten, except by die-hard slasher fans, but this remake falls into the trap of eschewing the very elements those fans want - spectacular deaths and gore. Fitting more into the remake mould of films like the recent Prom Night, where the horror is toned down for chick appeal, expect this Summit offering to vanish from the charts el pronto, to be followed by the announcement of Twilight 4 to 10 as soon as is prudently possible.

Lurking a few bucks below it, Whiteout, the “new” Dark Castle release, encountered ice-cold reviews and a fate never imagined possible when it went into production. Based on Greg Rucka’s highly-regarded graphic novel, directed by Dominic Sena, ex-whizz kid music video director who went on to helm Gone in 60 Seconds and Swordfish, and produced by Joel Silver, this Antarctica-set mystery thriller is certainly not the disaster its grosses would suggest, even if it has been gathering dust on the shelf a while. Visuals are excellent, atmosphere is great, plot is serviceable, so what went wrong? Audiences, it would seem, always get suspicious of something that should have been released some time back, and wasn’t (e.g. the forthcoming Road). How they know this is anyone’s guess, but they’re brilliant at detecting a lack of buzz even when there shouldn’t be. Since making this movie, Dominic Sena has gone on to direct Season of the Witch. Let’s hope he encounters better magic with this one.

District 9 landed at 8 with $3.6 million on a 49.1% fall, Julie & Julia kept ovens warm despite a 38% drop in temperature for $3.3 million (that’s $85 million in crepe suzettes to date) at 9, while at 10 it was game over for Gamer, a catastrophic plunge of 65.6% for this sci-fi virtual thriller to $3.1 million, $16 million since it opened last week.

Weekend Estimates courtesy boxofficeguru.com

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