The Best Man Holiday opening in the second place this week outperformed the expectancy parameter. This romantic sequel in the drama-comedy niche, continued the storyline of The Best Man that came out 14 years ago. Neither did the film make good business then, accumulating only around $34 million in total business (around $54 million in present valuation). The Holiday, released this weekend, already accumulated about $30.6 million, taking only three days to earn as much as the Best Man did in its complete run. The success of the Holiday also perplexed the pundits who were expecting it to open with around 8 to 10 million less than what it did. Surely, it did not dethrone the running Thor: The Dark World. No one was expecting that also. However, it did give Thor a run for money this week.
The Holiday also was a good luck metaphor for the film industry this week. The industry did not have any wide-release movie lined up in the week. There could have been a wide release competitor, but Fox decided to choose a limited release of the Book Thief. Paramount also pushed their latest, The Wolf of Wall Street to Christmas. As luck would have it, the Holiday got an open field all to itself, and the audience responded remarkably well. The movie also had some very good reviews to its credit, including top quality word of mouth reviews as an A+ grade in CinemaScore.
It now appears that even Universal did not have any idea of the fan base that accumulated for the Best Man in the last 14 years, when it aired on TV countless times. The cast members of the original movie, Terrence Howard and Taye Diggs also went on to become big stars of their own. The critics and the studios always seem to have a closed eye in understanding the tastes of the African-American crowd, especially those above 35. The movie did very good business in ranking at only $7.9 million behind Thor: The Dark world. For the superhero saga, this was the second week at the top position, but it recorded a fall in sales of about 55%. The Holiday was able to provide an alternative to many audiences, developing on the nostalgia. Thor’s current records show a total 10-day domestic gross amount of $147 million. In 2011, the prequel Thor earned a total of $181 million in its entire run.
The top five films of the week also featured the Last Vegas, earning around $8.9 million, reaching to a three week total of $47 million. At number four, was the Free Birds that raked in an estimated amount of $8.3 million. The total collections of the Free Birds ranks to $42.2 million in a three week run. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa was at number five, collecting an estimated $7.7 million, totaling to a $90 million mark at the end of four weeks. With Christmas coming around, it waits to see how well this feel-good romantic movie holds on to the attention of the audience.
