Box Office: Tyler Perry 'I Can Do Bad' does good with $8.6 million

Taraji P. Henson in "I Can Do Bad All By Myself."

Credit: Lionsgate

In the first non-summer movie frame of the season, Tyler Perry's "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" opened to $8.6 million at the box office on Friday.  This Perry melodrama featured a supporting appearance by his popular Madea character, but without her name in the title "Can Do" should only equate to a solid low 20s opening weekend. It won't hit the heights of "Madea Goes to Jail" ($41 million opening) or "Madea's Family Reunion" ($30 million first weekend). However, considering the low budgets of Perry's films overall, Lionsgate won't be complaining with yet another profit maker from the prolific writer/director.

Other openers this weekend included the long delayed Kate Beckinsale thriller "Whiteout" and the horror comedy "Sorority Row."  According to Box Office Mojo, the former found only $1.7 million and the later $1.9 million on Friday.  "Whiteout" was considered D.O.A. for sometime after numerous reshoots and shifting release dates after finishing production almost three years ago.  "Row" was more disappointing in that the "Scream" meets "Mean Girls" premise should have been ripe for the taking by audiences.  The fact the film wasn't scary or funny enough didn't help, but this seems like a major marketing misstep from Summit.  A summer release date apart from so many other horror films such as next week's "Jennifer's Body" may have allowed the picture to stand apart from the competition.  Neither film should do more than $6 million for the weekend.

"9" added $3.3 million to its coffers on Friday and has now made $7.7 million since opening on its appropriate Wednesday 9/9/09 release date.  The CG post-apocalyptic genre flick should end up with close to a cume of $13 million by Monday.

Still going strong is Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds."  The Weinstein Company/Universal Pictures co-production found another $1.9 million and should pass the $100 million mark today.  If any film in the Oscar race has benefited from strong office so far it's this WWII set thriller.

"The Final Destination" is, um, finally slowing down with only $1.6 million Friday.  The picture won't repeat as the No. 1 movie for the third weekend in a row, but Warner Bros. is sitting pretty with $54 million in the bank for the 3D horror flick.

Look for final box office weekend estimates tomorrow on HitFix.

Gregory Ellwood
Editor-in-Chief, Co-Founder

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With over a decade of experience in the movie industry, Ellwood survived working for two major studios and has written for Variety, MSN and the LA Times. A co-founder of HitFix, Ellwood spends his time relaxing hitting 3’s on the basketball court and following his beloved Clippers.