Tyler Perry scored big at the box office this weekend. His infamous character of Madea took on another holiday. She did Christmas already, and this time it was Halloween. In Boo! A Madea Haloween, Madea has to fight a host of spooky characters and things while keeping an eye on a group of teens. Tyler Perry brings along Cassi Davis, who has been in just about every Tyler Perry production. He also brings along Patrice Lovely, who plays the funny Hattie Mae Love on Love Thy Neighbor. With a group like this, Perry knew he would get nothing of good laughs, and he was right.
This weekend, his film came in number one at the box office, earning $27.6 million. The film’s opening weekend did better than The Birth of a Nation’s. The latter brought in $7.1 million during its opening weekend. This fact left lots of people upset at the thought of a Tyler Perry film besting a film that some say is so important to black history. So, it came as no surprise when people started to compare the films against one another. Critics on the other end of the conversation have said everything from ‘Birth’ being historically inaccurate to expressing that ‘Madea’ and Perry films are genuinely funny.
However, outside of Parker and Perry being two black filmmakers, there is no comparison that needs to be made. The two films cannot even be considered in the same genre. It is also noteworthy to point out that Perry didn’t have a host of controversy swirling around him currently or right before release.
People may want to compare, criticize and critique Tyler Perry for his Madea character, which some have deem as a stereotypical portrayal of black culture on screen. Although this is very understandable, the thing we can celebrate is that he’s a popular black filmmaker who beat out the likes of Tom Cruise this weekend.
