Facing Stiff Competition, Tyler Perry's 'For Colored Girls' Does Well At Box Office

Facing his toughest competition ever when opening a film, Tyler Perry's latest outing, 'For Colored Girls,' came in third place at the box office with $20.1 million.

The 3D animated film, 'Megamind,' topped the box office with an estimated $47.7 million, followed by the Robert Downey Jr./ Zach Galifianakis dramedy 'Due Date' with $33.5 million from 3,355 theaters.

"'Colored Girls' averaged a stellar $9,450 from 2,127 locations and like the filmmaker's prior work played heavily to black adult women. According to studio data, 82% of the crowd was female, 87% was over 25, and 81% was African American. Based on Ntozake Shange's 1975 play 'For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow Is Enuf,' the film covered disturbing subject matter but brought out a large targeted audience thanks to the brand names of the director and the play, plus starpower from cast members like Janet Jackson, Thandie Newton, Phylicia Rashad, and Whoopi Goldberg. The gross was just somewhat below the $23.4M bow of Perry's last fall release 'I Can Do Bad All By Myself' from last year," said boxofficeguru.com.

While the number is lower than what box office experts had predicted, it's actually remarkable, considering that this was his first R-rated film that he's released.

According to the Wall Street Journal , it's also the third drama film, outside of horror films, to make over the $20 million plateau during its opening week behind Martin Scorsese's 'Shutter Island' and Ben Affleck's 'The Town.'

This is Perry's second film released this year. The PG-13 rated 'Why Did I Get Married Too?' grossed a total of $30.2 million in its opening weekend placing second behind 'Clash of the Titans.'

With the exception of 'Daddy's Little Girls' ($31 M) with Gabrielle Union and Idris Elba, and 'Meet The Browns' ($41.9M) with Angela Bassett, the rest of Perry's films have grossed over $50 million.

Coming in fourth place was the Bruce Willis-Morgan Freeman action film, 'Red,' with $8.9 million. The film has taken in a total of $71.9 million. After opening up number one last week, the horror film, 'Saw 3D,' dropped 66% to $8.2 million to round out the top five. It's total gross is $38.8 million, which is disappointed considering the inflated prices for a 3D film.