During its opening weekend, EW.com reports that Red Tails came in second place at the weekend box office, about $6 million behind Underworld: Awakening. If you're disappointed that Red Tails didn't take the top spot, EW.com sees room for optimism in what was actually a better-than-expected opening. Here's what Entertainment Weekly's Grady Smith had to say regarding the new LFL film...
"In second place, George Lucas' passion-project Red Tails, a $58 million film starring Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr. that chronicles WWII's African-American Tuskegee airmen, took off with $19.1 million in its first three days. The strong debut came out of 2,512 theaters, which gave Red Tails a hefty $7,604 per theater average, the second-best in the Top 20. A few weeks ago, these high-flying numbers seemed unlikely. But in the week leading up to release, the film gained momentum.
Over the past few days, YouTube views for the trailer swelled, perhaps thanks to Tyler Perry's public endorsement of the film. In a newsletter to his fans dated January 17, Perry urged audiences to see Red Tails. "I think we should pull together and get behind this movie," he wrote. "Not just African Americans, but all of us." Of course, that's not to undermine Fox's marketing team, which clearly did its job and brought in a broad range of ages. Many films that play primarily to African American audiences (or really, any niche audience) drop quickly in their second week ? Perry's last three Madea films have fallen by an average of 60 percent in their second weekends ? but Red Tails may avoid a similar fate. The film increased by a whopping 40 percent from Friday to Saturday, a healthy sign that the film is playing well with families and shouldn't prove overly front loaded. Furthermore, audiences enjoyed the film, issuing it an "A" CinemaScore grade, which will likely help it endure. Who knows where the film will end its flight, but after three days of results, Red Tails seems early in its ascent."
On a side note, my 5 year Landon old came up to me last Friday and said that he saw a new movie on TV that looked like a new Star Wars. I asked about what he had seen, as I was personally unaware of a new Star Wars-like sci-fi flick out there. He said, "Dad, it has lots of battles just like Star Wars. It looks awesome." So at this point I simply asked if he remembered the movie's name. He excitedly proclaimed "Red Tails!" I just found that to be awesome! He may have to wait a year or two to see this one, but you better believe there will now be a family Blu-Ray screening of Red Tails in our future.