It’s been four years since an unknown (within Hollywood anyway) African-American playwright named Tyler Perry shocked the film industry with a massive first-place opening weekend for his feature-film debut, Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Since that time, Perry has written, directed and appeared in seven movies, four of which have also topped the charts. His newest hit is I Can Do Bad All By Myself, which earned $24 million during its first weekend in theaters. While that’s $20 million short of Perry’s best debut–last spring’s Madea Goes to Jail bowed to $41 million–it is his second-biggest bow ever and the movie should continue to do solid business for the rest of September before the fall movie season kicks off in earnest the first week of October.
Shane Acker’s apocalyptic animated adventure 9 claimed the number two spot, banking $15.2 million since its mid-week opening. That put the movie comfortably ahead of the weekend’s other non-Perry new releases, the college-set horror movie Sorority Row and Kate Beckinsale’s DOA Antarctica thriller Whiteout, which finished in sixth and seventh place respectively. Expect both movies should be out of theaters and on DVD before Thanksgiving.
Elsewhere, Quentin Tarantino’s World War II epic Inglorious Basterds officially crossed the $100 million threshold and is on its way to passing Pulp Fiction as the director’s biggest box-office hit ever. The news is equally good for District 9, which hit that milestone last weekend and continued to bank money, bringing its total cume to $108.5 million.
The full Top Ten is below, courtesy of the-numbers.com. Next weekend, Megan Fox attempts to prove there’s more to her than meets the eye in her first post-Transformers star turn, Jennifer’s Body and Matt Damon headlines Steven Soderbergh’s latest eccentric studio flick, The Informant!
The Top Ten: September 11-13, 2009
1. I Can Do Bad All By Myself: $24
2. 9: $15.2
3. Inglorious Basterds: $6.5/$104.3
4. All About Steve: $5.8/$21.8
5. The Final Destination: $5.5/$58.2
6. Sorority Row: $5.2
7. Whiteout: $5.1
8. District 9: $3.6/$108.5
9. Julie & Julia: $3.3/$85.3
10. Gamer: $3.1/$16.1
