As the only new nationwide release this weekend, The Best Man Holiday exceeded expectations with an impressive $30 million haul. Still, superhero sequel Thor: The Dark World managed to hang on to first place.
In its second weekend, Thor added $38.5 million for a 10-day total of $147 million. That’s down 55 percent from opening, which is steeper than the first Thor’s decline (47 percent), but a slight improvement over Iron Man 3 (58 percent).
At 2,024 locations, The Best Man Holiday opened in second place with an outstanding $30.6 million. In comparison, the original The Best Man debuted to $9 million when it hit theaters over 14 years ago; adjusted for ticket price inflation, that’s only $14 million, meaning Best Man Holiday more-than-doubled its predecessor in initial ticket sales.
This is also a very impressive figure compared to recent movies with largely African-American casts. It’s higher than all-but-one of Tyler Perry’s movies—2009’s Madea Goes to Jail is the exception—and it’s also only a bit behind last year’s smash hit Think Like a Man ($33.6 million).
The Best Man Holiday was in an advantageous position, of course, because of its strong brand: while the original Best Man only did modest business in theaters, many have discovered and enjoyed the movie in the years since. Universal’s marketing portrayed the sequel as a reunion of sorts for these characters and the actors, some of whom have seen their stars rise in the last 14 years. Setting the movie at Christmas helped amplify this theme, as the holiday season is widely regarded as a time to reconnect with old friends. It didn’t hurt that previews struck a nice balance between comedy, romance and drama, and made the movie look like a good time.
