Tyler Perry's 'Madea' enjoys big debut

"Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail" is a breakout hit in Atlanta.

The Atlanta filmmaker's comedy had a huge local debut, rolling up $2.2 million at 51 theaters across the metro area last weekend. That accounted for 55 percent of all Atlanta movie ticket purchases from Friday through Sunday, according to figures from the box-office tracking firm Movie Marketplace. By contrast, the movie captured 29 percent of the national box office on Oscar weekend.

"Madea Goes to Jail" was not a local record-breaker for an opening weekend, but it ranks well when compared with much bigger-budgeted and massively promoted big-studio blockbusters such as "The Dark Knight," which opened with $2.9 million at Atlanta megaplexes last July, or "Spider-Man 3," which had a $3 million debut here in May 2007.

In opening with $41.1 million nationally on approximately 2,800 screens, "Madea Goes to Jail" is Perry's top-grossing debut ever. His last Madea-centered picture, "Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion," had a $30 million opening on the same weekend in 2006.

"Jail" "once again [demonstrates] the allure of a man cross-dressing as a big, fat granny," Brandon Gray wrote on boxofficemojo.com, noting that Perry's national debut beat Eddie Murphy's "Norbit" (2007) and nearly matched "The Nutty Professor" (1996).

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