"Lee Daniels' The Butler" opened to a strong $8.3 million Friday, putting the Forest Whitaker-Oprah Winfrey civil rights saga on pace for a debut weekend in the $25 million range.
That about $5 million over analysts' expectations and makes the Weinstein Company's decision to release the "The Butler" in 2,933 theaters, rather than the gradual platform release favored for most awards hopefuls, look like a good one. Mature and African-American moviegoers were the target audience and it was connecting: its $8,300 per-screen average was well ahead of anything else in the market on Friday.
Also read: ''The Butler' Reviews: Is the Civil Rights Drama a Masterpiece or Maudlin?
The presence of Winfrey, making her first big-screen appearance in more than a decade, had to help the PG-13 rated historical drama.