It’s been a good year for Lee Daniels’ The Butler and with huge box office victories in the first two weeks of its release, the hit has now become the highest grossing Black film of the year.
Earning a whopping $116 million, the biopic becomes the first Black movie to pass the $100 million sales mark in over two decades. This officially makes Daniels one of the top-grossing Black directors of all time and places him in the “$100 million club” of filmmakers.
The movie stars Forest Whitaker as a White House butler who served eight American presidents over three decades.
Behind The Butler is the Jackie Robinson biopic 42, followed by The Best Man Holiday and After Earth. Two of Tyler Perry’s films also made the list. Temptations: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor, took the fifth place spot with $51 million and A Madea Christmas came in seventh place with $43 million.
Also on the list were Halle Berry’s The Call, Kevin Hart’s Let Me Explain and the critically acclaimed 12 Years a Slave.