American Gangster Tops Weekend Box Office
American Gangster beat out Bee Movie at the box office this past weekend. The violent crime drama starring Denzel Washington as a heroin kingpin and Russell Crowe as the good cop pulled in $46.3 million while Jerry Seinfeld’s animated family film came in second with $39.1 million. This news surprised some because of American Gangster’s long running time (two hours and 40 minutes) and R rating. Bee Movie, which is rated PG, is only 90 minutes long. Even though it was beat out by American Gangster, Be Movie still did better than expected. American Gangster, which drew a very diverse audience, is associated closely with hip-hop. The movie stars rappers, RZA, Common, and T.I. and has also inspired a new Jay-Z album titled “American Gangster� which will be released on Tuesday. Thanks to Washington and Crowe, 53% of the audience for American Gangster was female. This was the biggest movie opening of both actor's careers.
USA Today and the Star Tribune both covered the story on their websites. USA Today went into far more detail, citing the hip-hop influence, diverse audience, and long running times. The Star Tribune only had a couple sentences and a list of the top 10 at the box office. I thought there was definitely a lot more there that the Star Tribune missed.