This just in: Black people like going to the movies

This morning as I hit the multiplex to see "We Own the Night," a very by-the-numbers cop flick salvaged only by atmosphere and tremendous acting, I noticed there were at least twice as many cars in the parking lot as usual for the early shows.

It still didn't hit me until I saw who was actually in line - 50 to 100 black women, many of whom knew each other well - that I realized what was going on: It's that annual phenomenon known as a Tyler Perry movie.

Now, though I'm far from target audience for a Tyler Perry movie, up until now I've loved every one I've seen. They're never terribly deep, but as solidly entertaining escapist movie fare, they are ideal. And I thought his last one, "Daddy's Little Girls" with Idris Elba and Gabrielle Union, was his best work yet.

But, since like I said I didn't see his new flick, "Why Did I Get Married," on Friday, I'm not really here to discuss its merits or faults (it's on the viewing agenda for Sunday morning, most likely.)

Instead I'm just kind of wondering, and admittedly probably in a less than completely cogent way, why it is that if black people line up to see movies in which people who look like them in a positive light, Hollywood doesn't make more of them?

The last time I experienced anything like this was on Christmas day of last year, when I had the pleasure of squeezing into a packed showing of "Dreamgirls." Now, "Dreamgirls" was a damn fine flick, in my opinion, and watching it with so many eager people just made it that much more fun. I'm not sure in hindsight it quite deserved the minutes-long standing ovation it received at the end, but caught up in the moment as I was then it certainly seemed appropriate at the time.

I have to get to work now before I get into hot water, but if anyone has insight into why more movies like this aren't made (and no, putting Martin Lawrence in another buddy movie doesn't count), please let me know.