Tyler Perry‘s Boo! A Madea Halloween is #1 at the box office for the 2nd straight week. ‘Boo!’ beat out Tom Hanks‘ ‘Inferno,’ earning more than $17.2 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $52.6 million.
Perry expressed his gratitude in email blasts to subscribers on his mailing list.
“Hey Guys,
Madea Halloween is #1 two weekends in a row!! What are y’all trying to do!!!!! Thank you so much. God bless,” he wrote.
Last week Perry lamented that his holiday movie didn’t draw as many white viewers because the film was shown in theaters that weren’t in white neighborhoods.
He said he felt “confident” after his “Madea On the Run” tour drew more Caucasian viewers.
“I would go out to certain parts of the country and the audience was 50 percent black and 50 percent other, which is a total change for me,” Perry told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
“When I first started, it was 100 percent black,” he said. “I knew something had changed drastically with Madea. To see it show up in the box office, to see what I already saw in theaters, it’s very powerful. I’m grateful. Eighteen years. That character. People still love the franchise. Who knew?”
Perry said the current political climate was just right for the release of “Boo!”
“What this country needed more than anything after all this political campaign, all those police shootings and all this hatred, the country needed a laugh,” he said. “I think with the success of Madea, it speaks to the opportunity of laughing rather than going heavy. The timing is what it is.”
