Movie News

As the superstar returns with "Meet the Browns," one critic discusses his business savvy, his dedicated audience ... and his disheartening mediocrity

By David Walker
Special to MSN Movies

It wasn't all that long ago that the only people who knew Tyler Perry were the loyal fans he had built through his faith-based stage plays. Touring along a modern-day "chitlin' circuit" that catered primarily to black audiences, Perry found success through a series of plays he had written that mixed melodrama and lowbrow comedy with moralizing sermons inspired by his Christian beliefs. It was these plays, many featuring him in the cross-dressing role of an aging black woman named Madea, that helped Perry become the man he is today.

Building upon the success of his plays, which he would film on video and sell on DVD, Perry turned his faith and his limited talent as a writer into an empire, earning a respectable fortune in less than a decade. To his fans he is a talented genius who speaks to the black working and middle class, using faith to build a moral foundation for his work. To his critics he is a savvy businessman with nominal talent, who has used faith-based entertainment to build a powerful media empire the same way Vince McMahon used "sports entertainment" to transform professional wrestling into a money-making machine. And while comparing Perry's plays to professional wrestling may seem like a stretch, both were marginalized forms of live entertainment that thrived through the loyalty of fans who came to see very specific things. In the case of wrestling, it was men in a ring hitting each other with folding metal chairs. In the case of Perry's plays, it was one-dimensional characters facing trying times who are overcome by faith in God and love of Jesus.

When Perry's "Why Did I Get Married?" debuted in October 2007 at No. 1, it was the third film in a row from the Atlanta-based entertainment mogul to reach that coveted spot, and his fourth film to clean up at the box office. Grossing more than $21 million during its opening weekend (with a final gross of approximately $55 million), the success of "Why Did I Get Married?" seemed to come as a surprise to Hollywood. For many, Perry was an unknown quantity, a rising star who made a name for himself outside of mainstream film, but whose string of successes marked the arrival of an undeniable force.

Perry's earlier theatrical films, "Daddy's Little Girls," "Madea's Family Reunion" and "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" (the only one he did not direct), had already earned a collective $140 million-plus, and the opening weekend of "Why Did I Get Married?" was enough to get the industry buzzing about the man and his success. In Entertainment Weekly, Joshua Rich wrote, "Cutting right to the chase, it's clear now more than ever that Perry's appeal goes beyond urban or African American crowds, because you just can't pull off a victory as decisive as this without attracting folks from a diversity of demographics."

While there may be some validity to Rich's statement, it is still based on an ignorant and racist supposition that fails to realistically take into account black consumers. Sure, some white people may be going to see Perry's films, but based on the type of money he is earning it is not a foregone conclusion that he has crossed over. On the contrary: If anything, Perry's success at the box office is more likely than not proof that he is simply getting black people into theaters that otherwise might not go.

There are approximately 37 million black people in the United States. In order for a film to gross $21 million in its opening weekend, it would require 3 million people purchasing tickets at an average cost of $7 each. That means it would take less than 10 percent of all the black people in America (or less than one percent of all Americans) buying tickets to "Why Did I Get Married?" for the film to earn $21 million.

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