Tyler Perry beats Tom Cruise at the US box office

Rapturous critical notices lifted “Moonlight” at the art house box office this weekend. However, it came in well behind the $19.9 million debut of the first Ouija in 2014, but hopes to be scare up strong business through Halloween since there are no other horror movies opening. A Madea Halloween gathering $855,000 on its opening night, and Ouija: Origin of Evil scoring $722,000. Then they head to the party, get found out, and there follows a series of increasingly far-fetched pranks.

The weekend’s biggest disappointment is Fox’s new release, “Keeping up With the Joneses”, which despite an ensemble cast of comic powerhouses including Zac Galafianakis and Jon Hamm, could not keep up with the competition.

For true horror fans, the scariest thing at the box office this Halloween season is hearing that Tyler Perry just became the king of the holiday. Worldwide fame and adoration.

The latest film in the long-running Madea series racked up $27.6 million. Overseas, “Never Go Back” performed well, earning $31 million.

Paramount’s “Jack Reacher”, a sequel to the 2012 film that starred Cruise as a former U.S. Army MP with an ax to grind, was considered the favorite newcomer going into the weekend.

Perry designed this ninth movie in the Madea franchise as a growth opportunity for Madea’s brother, one of three characters he plays. Despite a ho-ho-ho-hum opening of $16M, it still scored $52M. Because when you have Tyler Perry production favorites like Aunt Bam (Cassi Davis), star of several of his sold-out plays, Hattie (Patrice Lovely) from Love Thy Neighbor – teaming up with Madea, Joe and Brian (all played by Perry) you know the racy and raunchy meter will occasionally bounce into the red. That’s 12 and 14 years ago. The PG-13 Halloween comedy from Lionsgate earned a solid A grade from CinemaScore – the fourth Madea flick to get that. I’ve never seen a disparity that large between sequels, especially going the opposite direction. “There is an air of psychodrama about all of this, as if Perry is working through his own issues about childhood abuse through the broad comedy characters he has created, and this is unsettling, to say the least”. “It’s the overseas box office that really will put this into trilogy land”. A Halloween week bounce is a lingering possibility for this R-rated thriller. And for a comedy series that started out as okay, and peaked with its best movie being slightly better than okay, this latest entry into the series is nothing short of very bad, which is quite the accomplishment considering the series was never great to begin with. I was selling out of my vehicle and making a small commission on it and I was just as happy as I am today when the movie is successful or television show works.

In comparison, Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut, American Pastoral, made $151,000 (£123.4 million) for the weekend in 50 theatres.

Also saddling up to limited fashion is Ti West’s non-traditional western, “In the Valley of Violence”, starring John Travolta and Ethan Hawke, which rides into 30 theaters from Focus World. The drama shone bright, grossing $414,740 from four theaters in Los Angeles and NY to score the best location average ($103,685) since The Revenant ($118,640). It even managed critical acclaim, earning an enviable 81% at Rotten Tomatoes. The faith-based drama I’m Not Ashamed posted a mild debut with an estimated $900,000 from 505 theaters for a soft $1,782 average. Do the people that make these decisions not have Spotify? I don’t have the right to walk away from it because the audiences have been demanding it for all these years. It kind of reminds me of Johnson at Ebony you know, just what he had done in the time, so that is what is important to me right now leaving the legacy and leaving something that he can be proud of but also everybody. Nope, Sweden’s Blue Swede for the win…again.

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