While on the promotional trail earlier this year for About Last Night, Michael Ealy cracked to a room full of reporters that whenever Will Packer calls, his response is an automatic yes, almost without hearing what the film is.
His rationale makes sense: Every film Ealy has worked on with the producer has been a box office success. Takers, the 2010 crime thriller that also starred Idris Elba, brought in more than $70 million. Two years ago, it was Think Like a Man that left industry insiders scratching their heads, trying to figure out how a feature film with a majority-Black ensemble cast managed to rake in some $96 million, which is particularly impressive considering it cost $12 million to make. And About Last Night didn’t fare too shabbily, either; it’s earned more than $48 million and cost about $12.5 million to make.
Think Like a Man Too was released in June. No Good Deed, which stars Elba and Taraji P. Henson, will hit theaters this fall. Packer is already eyeing 2015 with the release of The Wedding Ringer, starring Kevin Hart and Josh Gad, and he recently inked a deal to produce Girls Trip with Best Man Holiday’s Malcolm D. Lee directing. Because of the box office success of this year’s Ride Along (Hart and Ice Cube), a sequel starts shooting this month and is slated for a 2016 release.
Read more in the July 2014 issue of EBONY Magazine.
