Numbers-Don’t-Lie: Tyler Perry’s ‘Alex Cross’ Flops At Box Office, Numbers Disappoint

Tyler Perry’s role as a crime saver in the ‘Alex Cross’, didn’t do so well over the weekend, at the box office. The numbers are in and the Summit Entertainment film starring Perry as author James Patterson’s brilliant criminal profiler, was a dud, opening at No. 5 with $11.8 million. Critics suggest that fans prefer him playing the popular character ‘Madea’, which mostly have had opening weekends two and three times bigger than that of “Alex Cross.”

Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com, explains:

“He’s become so identified and so successful with the Madea franchise that when he steps outside of that, it doesn’t necessarily follow that the audience is going along with him. It’s fun for him to stretch out a little bit, but it didn’t really pay off.”

On Sunday, Tyler addressed fans and naysayers on his personal web site, in a post titled ‘Thank You For Allowing Me to Gro’, writing:

Thank You For Allowing Me To Grow. To all of you who went to see Alex Cross this weekend, I just want to say thank you for allowing me to grow. Thank you for letting me stretch my wings a bit. I knew you would enjoy it. Your messages on my board make me feel so good, and thank you for giving the movie an A. Can’t do this without you.

[AP, TylerPerry.com] If you saw ‘Alex Cross’, what do you think of Tyler’s role–impressive or a flop? And should he stick to comical movie’s like ‘Madea’, or continue to try and expand his acting wings?