It was a great weekend at the box office for When The Bough Breaks. The thriller, starring Morris Chestnut, Regina Hall, and Jaz Sinclair, racked in $15 million its debut weekend.
The movie has been highly promoted with TV commercials, print ads, Internet ads, etc., which is not normally the case for a feature film starring majority Black actors. But When The Bough Breaks is a whole new breed of Black movie– the Black romantic thriller.
If you’ve been on a deserted island and don’t know the plot, the Sony-Screen Gems film is about a successful couple–Hall and Chestnut (who produced the flick)–who hire a young surrogate (Sinclair) to carry their baby. Of course, the beautiful surrogate is more than a bit crazy and becomes obsessed with Chestnut’s character.
Normally such storylines don’t feature Black actors, but obviously in this case it worked–and worked well. “The formula for the Hollywood romantic thriller is fairly consistent…But historically, never are any of the main characters Black,” wrote the Los Angeles Times.
Another plus is When The Bough Breaks cost just $10 million to make, so the film has already made its money back and then some in just three days. So it seems Black actors can lead successful romantic thrillers.
