Awards are lovely but where’s the dough?
Tyler Perry’s Meet The Browns grossed
$20, 082, 809 with 2,006 screens during its opening weekend
and George Clooney’s Leatherheads grossed
$12, 682, 595 with 2,769 screens during its opening weekend.
Leatherheads has two Academy Award@ winners in Clooney and Renee Zellweger and an actor with buzz in The Office‘s John Krasinski in the leads AND more screens while Meet The Browns has Angela Bassett and the Tyler Perry brand.
Now Tyler Perry complains A LOT about how he’s treated by the major studios and mainstream media. He feels disrespected by them because he has achieved success according to the standards set by the mainstream (make money, make money, MAKE MONEY) meanwhile George Clooney has awards but IS not exactly making bank with his handsome, cradle robbing self.
And Perry has a point: Time attempts to explain his appeal and wonder if it’s minstrelsy while George Clooney gets the cover with the tagline ‘The Last Movie Star.’
I’m guessing that Leatherheads looks better than Meet The Browns (Tyler needs an upgrade in production designers and cinematographers — I recommend Mayne Schyler Berke for production design and Shane Hurlbut for cinematograpy — they both created a warm, inviting palette for Sanaa Hamri’s Something New) but there’s no denying that Meet…. has tapped into an audience that is loyal and doesn’t evaporate on opening weekend.
Also. some cultural critics are worried about the simplistic, moralistic bent of Perry’s films. I do hope that these critics can find it in their hearts to acknowledge why that bent works….Perry’s audience is very much at home with his raison d’être. In the same way Judd Apatow has found his very profitable niche (white boys who are afraid to grow up but make you laugh until they do), Perry has found his. It may not sit well with people who think pop culture for black people should be solely in the hands of the Talented Tenth but you know what?
It’s too late. Perry is the guest who dropped in for a glass of water and decided to stay for dinner. Most likely also will be paying for the dinner, too.
Back to Clooney and his bankability problem. George call Tyler. Sit down and mix it up. Who knows what Clooney with his finely tuned sense of the comedic absurd and principled engagement with the world can do with Perry’s populist insight and success?
All I ask is that Tyler hangs up Madea for the next year.
Tyler Perry Eyes Wider Appeal (THR)
Box Office Mojo
God and Tyler Perry vs. Hollywood (Time)
An Open Letter To Tyler Perry (The Root)
UPDATE: Tyler Perry, The Rock, Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg Beat Clooney (Deadline Hollywood Daily)
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