Tyler Perry has signed a multi-year first-look deal with Netflix. The prolific filmmaker behind “Boo!: A Madea Halloween,” “For Colored Girls,” “The Family That Preys” and “Why Did I Get Married?” will write, direct and produce feature films for the streaming giant.
Perry’s upcoming Netflix originals include “Six Triple Eight,” with Kerry Washington heading up an ensemble flick about the first and only Women’s Army Corps unit of color to be stationed overseas during World War II. Perry’s upcoming “Mea Culpa” stars Kelly Rowland as a defense attorney who represents an artist accused of murdering his girlfriend.
Perry has already made several films for Netflix, including “A Jazzman’s Blues,” “A Fall from Grace” and “A Madea Homecoming.”
The latter was the 12th film featuring Perry’s marquee character. The fast-talking, zero-s–t-taking atheist grandmother — played by Perry himself — was first introduced onstage in “I Can Do Bad All By Myself” and onscreen in the feature film adaptation of his stage play “Diary of a Mad Black Woman.”
That picture earned $50.6 million domestically from a $5.5 million budget. It kicked off several years of commercially profitable features (“Madea’s Family Reunion,” “Meet the Browns,” “Why Did I Get Married?” and more). It also made Tyler Perry Productions one of the most reliable brands in the mid-2000s for Lionsgate. Since 2006, his 25 theatrical features (not counting “Diary Of A Mad Black Woman” in 2005 which he wrote but did not direct) have earned more than $1 billion worldwide.
Along with the film output, and periodic acting gigs in other filmmakers’ films (such as “Gone Girl,” “Don’t Look Up,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows” and “Vice”), the filmmaker has created 17 multi-season television shows since “House of Payne” in 2007 and long had a deal with Oprah Winfrey’s OWN for his small-screen work. He signed a four-film production deal with Amazon in November of 2022.
