Who could have believed that a Hollywood movie directed by an African-American that examines more than 60 years of socio-political history through the life of an African-American White House butler would have happened , much less been released toward summer 's end ? And that it would become the talk of the nation as both `` Oscar bait '' and cultural signifier ? Oh ... and make more money in its opening weekend than anybody , including its producers , expected ? Even before it opened nationwide Friday , `` Lee Daniels ' The Butler '' seemed far more than just another Hollywood period melodrama . In a summer where racial reckoning manifested itself in major and minor events ( the George Zimmerman verdict and the Paula Deen sideshow ) , the movie promised to be a kind of cultural signpost , an occasion for still more soul-searching and commemoration leading to this month 's 50th anniversary of the March on Washington . It even became grist for a rare front-page essay last week in the Washington Post written by film critic Ann Hornaday , who declared the movie a groundbreaker for being the `` first major feature film to capture the full sweep and scope of the civil rights movement . '' 'The Butler ' reflects America 's racial conversations . The movie 's thoroughgoing publicity campaign made it an unavoidable fact of life , thanks largely to its female lead , Oprah Winfrey , who through boisterous appearances on almost every nationally-televised talk show made herself as unavoidable a fact of life as she was when she had her own nationally-televised talk show between 1986 and 2011 -- which somehow seems a lot longer ago than it actually is . Oprah 's hard work likely was n't targeted at movie critics -- though if you go by the Rotten Tomatoes website that assesses critical consensus , `` The Butler '' has reaped a 73 percent `` ripe '' ( as in positive ) score -- though it 's also true that even some of those positive reviews are mixed in nature . While even some of the negative reviews have good things to say about the acting , especially from Forest Whitaker in the title role of circumspect presidential servant Cecil Gaines and Winfrey as his saucy , unsettled easy spouse Gloria , even some of the positive reviews take to task some of the heavy-handed melodramatic flourishes applied to the story by Daniels , whose previous work , 2008 's `` Precious '' and last year 's `` The Paperboy '' , drew critical wrath for what were viewed as wretched , maudlin excesses . `` The Butler '' itself may not have been every critic 's idea of a masterpiece . But its advance hype ( did I mention all the Sunday supplement covers ? ) was certainly some kind of masterly work of art ; the kind whose only precedent for an African-American-made commercial film was the buildup orchestrated in large part by Spike Lee for his 1994 biopic , `` Malcolm X . '' Did it work ? Put it this way : The most optimistic forecast for `` Butler 's '' opening weekend was $ 15 million . It has so far earned more than $ 25 million , easily outdistancing such late-season action franchises as `` Kick Ass 2 '' ( $ 13.5 million ) . Though no industry pundit expects it to pass the magic blockbuster borderline of $ 100 million , `` The Butler '' has already achieved enough capital , in money and buzz , to make people wonder whether it heralds yet another surge in serious commercial films about African-American life , past and present . 10 secrets of 'The Butler ' We 've been down this road before ; several times , in fact , since the early 1990s when the emergence of Lee , John Singleton ( `` Boyz n The Hood '' ) and other young filmmakers-of-color heralded a renaissance of minority movies . What 's happened since those days has been at best a static , fitful process of advancement for black Americans in film with many in Hollywood convinced that movies with black-related themes are at best niche-market items with little if any staying power in a global movie bazaar where generic action movies and romantic comedies allegedly deliver bigger bangs for the buck . We will , as always , see . Whatever the future holds for `` Lee Daniels ' The Butler '' , one groundbreaking fact remains : Somehow , someway , a commercial feature film about the civil rights era was made by a black director with a predominantly black cast without a major white character being the focus of the narrative . So far , it 's working . And that means that , for the moment , anything 's possible .
Gene Seymour : Opening weekend success of 'The Butler ' surprising . He says it comes at a time of national reckoning on race , with Zimmerman , Deen . Movie reviews mixed , but hype masterly . Does it mark renaissance of black films ? It 's stunning that a film by and about blacks , civil rights made such a splash .