Ice Cube and Kevin Hart opened a film this weekend called Ride Along and its performance is worth noting. Ride Along took the top spot at the box-office this weekend, earning $41 Million.

That means Ride Along had the biggest January opening weekend ever, beating out Cloverfield. It also means that any lingering hesitancy that Hollywood might hold about audiences not turning out for “black stories”, and that the target market of successful Hollywood movies is chiefly white and male and young, should be fully defeated.

The audience for Ride Along, which Box-Office Mojo breaks down, was “57 percent female, and 54 percent over the age of 25. The ethnic breakdown was 50 percent African American, 30 percent Hispanic, and 12 percent Caucasian.”

We’ve discussed this issue earlier in our awards coverage. The past year was a good one for African-American stories at the movies. But 2013 is not a trend because there is no evidence that requires a trend. Movies that are appealing tend to find audiences-black and white, male and female-and this has and will remain true.

This doesn’t mean bad movies targeted to young male audiences will stop succeeding. But it does reinforce the counter-narrative: movies that are targeted to a broader audience can find a broader audience. Plainly put, the movie is the point, not the target market.

Kevin Hart is among the 2 or 3 funniest stand-up acts in business right now. Ice Cube is extremely charming and affable on-screen, and has been since Friday. That Ride Along was able to out-perform openers like Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit and The Nut Job is both noteworthy, and completely unsurprising.

Which isn’t to say Ride Along is any good. I haven’t seen it. My wife and I had a rare opportunity this weekend to get to the theater and we saw 12 Years a Slave. But would you really rather spend 2 hours in another bland action drama starring Captain Kirk than ride along with Kevin Hart?