The latest Tyler Perry movie-featuring pastor and gospel artist Marvin Winans-took the top spot at the box office at the weekend.

Opening in around 2,200 theaters across the country, I Can Do Bad All By Myself took in slightly more than $24 million, according to boxofficemojo.com, ahead of another new release, 9, an animated science-fiction drama.

With Perry's popular Madea character from his other movies a minor figure, I Can Do Bad All By Myself stars singers Mary J. Blige and Gladys Knight, with Winans appearing as a pastor. He wrote the sermon that features in the movie-about a young woman overcoming personal challenges-and preached a version of it in real life at his Perfecting Church in Detroit.

Winans told the Detroit Free Press that "there is always an element of spirituality" in Perry's films. "He really is unashamed to include the church or the teaching of the church in his movies as a standard for morality."

A film.com review considered the film "more of the usual Perry formula, in which screwed-up people find their way back to the straight and narrow with the help of kind souls who gently urge them in the direction of the nearest church."

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