'I Can Do Bad' makes good with $24 million opening

By Sarah Sluis

"Part musical, part love story, part family melodrama, part inspirational treacle," Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself won over the box office with a $24 million weekend take. With a targeted release of 2,255 screens, each auditorium brought in $10,656. While the opening weekend comes in below Perry's February release Madea Goes to Jail, it was 37% higher than The Family that Preys, which opened the same weekend last year. The pace at which Perry releases his films, as well as their popularity, continues to astound me. He's currently filming Why Did I Get Married Too, and will take on a non-Madea project in the fall when he starts filming poetry-play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Not Enuf, which is rumored to have an all-star cast.

Focus Features' 9 brought in $10.8 million, and because it opened on Wednesday, it already boasts a cumulative gross of $15.2 million. The early opening date likely appealed to the primarily male, 12-34 audience, which is known for turning out opening day for event films.

Neither of the genre offerings of the weekend brought in hefty audiences. Sorority Row narrowly beat Whiteout, coming in at number six with $5.2 million to Whiteout's $5.1 million.

On the specialty circuit, two environmentally themed pictures made the biggest impact. No Impact Man, a documentary of a man's attempt to

minimize his environmental impact, brought in a serviceable $7,600 per

theatre at its two locations. The bigger winner was Crude, a documentary about the environmental catastrophe caused by Chevron, which has spawned an ongoing court case and the nickname "Amazon Chernobyl." Its one-screen release brought in $16,595, and $21,823 since its Wednesday open.

This Friday, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs opens in 3D, including an IMAX release, along with Jennifer Aniston-Aaron Eckhart romantic comedy Love Happens, feminist-horror movie Jennifer's Body, and Steven Soderbergh-directed The Informant!