Girls Trip a Box-Office Hit and Proves Black Women Can Bring the Funny and the Money

Girls Trip did what many assumed it would and was an instant hit at the box office over the weekend. The movie, which came in second in box-office numbers to Dunkirk, earned an estimated $30.8 million.

Under the tutelage of director Malcolm D. Lee, Girls Trip tells the story of friends heading to the Essence Festival and stars Regina Hall, Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah and Tiffany Haddish.

Following in the footsteps of last year’s award-winning movie Hidden Figures, Lee’s movie proves that black female ensemble movies can be blockbuster hits, even under the shadow of a Hollywood still trying to get its diversity issues addressed.

“Black women can open a movie and it does not have to be about the space program, OK?” Lee told the Hollywood Reporter. “Black Girl Magic is real—people want a piece of it, they want to see it, they want to be empowered by it.”

And not only did people see Girls Trip in droves, but you would be hard-pressed not to see praise coming from social media. And it wasn’t just black people. According to Box Office Mojo, 59 percent of the audience was black, 19 percent was white, 17 percent was Hispanic and 3 percent was Asian.

Last week The Root’s content producer, Danielle Young, reviewed the movie and explained how it showed the complexities of black women’s friendships.

“Lee and [Will] Packer capture the unbreakable bonds of black women’s friendships. This special connection, despite the trials, is strong enough to take on infidelity, truth telling (over sparing feelings) and those all-too-real, I’m-sick-of-your-shit moments that end a lot of fragile friendships. No doubt, black women strive in a world that doesn’t support us the way we support it,” Young wrote.

And what some people will obviously point out is the fact that two black men were behind the cameras, with Will Packer joining Lee as the producer, and were able to masterfully tell the tale of black women’s friendships. Something tells me that these two men definitely paid attention to their mothers, aunts and sisters growing up.