Success of 'Think Like a Man' Has Hollywood Scratching Their Heads

Not arguing with the analysis here, but would like to see more of it. It’s also a good summation of what you’ll read elsewhere that, in my opinion, might be missing the real point of the film’s surprise success.

L.A. Times:

By most box-office standards, “Think Like a Man” didn’t hit any milestones this weekend. In fact, the movie didn’t even break any records within the more limited world of black-oriented films. The biggest opening weekends in the category still belong to the likes of “Norbit” and Tyler Perry’s “Madea Goes to Jail,” which each topped “Man’s” $33 million. …

For years, the conventional wisdom in Hollywood has been that, outside of broad comedies, black audiences can’t drive a big hit. That probably should have been debunked long ago, but if you look at how often mainstream development slates ignore black stories — and how little even those that pay attention spend on those movies (see under: the modest budgets for Screen Gems’ and Lionsgate’s films in this realm) — it hasn’t really been debunked at all.

Naysayers will argue that “Think Like a Man” racked up the dollars by copying the template of white-oriented romcoms such as “Valentine’s Day” and “He’s Just Not That Into you.” Those movies also used big ensemble casts, interlocking stories, happy endings and pre-awareness of one form or another to drive box office. But the fact of such mimicry kind of proves the point. Black and white audiences, long seen as so different, increasingly want some of the same things.

Because the Left is obsessed with race and the rest of us are not, what I’d like to know is if “Think Like a Man” really is a “Black-driven hit.”

How many non-Black moviegoers saw it?

So much of the country not living on the coasts really is colorblind, so it wouldn’t surprise me if a straight-forward romantic comedy, where the cast just happened to share a certain skin color, wasn’t every bit as appealing to non-Black audiences as it was to Black audiences. And if this is the case, maybe Hollywood’s own backwards racial assumptions kept the studio from releasing the film into more theatres and cost them a whole lot of money.