Perfect for black history month: Good days for black cinema. Ride Along, directed by Tim Story and produced by Will Packer, starring comedian Kevin Hart and actor/rapper Ice Cube, eclipsed the magical mark of making $100 million domestically at the box office this weekend.
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The century dollar domestic mark is rare for films starring and directed by African Americans. To date, Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013) and Stir Crazy (1980), directed by Sidney Poitier and starring Richard Pryor, are the only other movies directed by an African American and starring a black lead that have reached $100 million. The Best Man Holiday, directed by Malcolm Lee, was successful, although it currently sits at a nice $70 million gross.
Of course there have been films starring African American leads that have gone over the century million mark like Beverly Hills Cop 2 starring Eddie Murphy, and Men in Black, with Will Smith.
Last Thursday, Ride Along was in the number one spot headed to sitting atop the box office numbers for a fourth straight week. But it was dethroned by mega hit, The Lego Movie that debuted at $69 million cosigning predictions that it might hit the $200 million mark domestically. Ride Along (which has a sequel in the works) is currently in third place behind The Lego Movie and George Clooney's Monuments Men.
