Black women came out in droves to see Perry’s films, more specifically, Christian black women. He also opened up the eyes of the film industry to a demographic long ignored: middle-aged black women. Though it wasn’t exactly a box office hit, Perry proved himself to be a profitable filmmaker. Filmed on a $5.5 million dollar production budget, Diary of A Mad Black Woman earned $21,905,089 in it’s opening weekend, and over $50,000,000 overall. Tyler Perry made his directing, producing, and acting debut as Madea in 2005’s Diary of A Mad Black Woman based on his play of the same name. Madea and Tyler Perry were beloved by theatergoers and soon enough they became beloved by moviegoers. The addition of Madea saw Perry bring in more than $100 million in ticket sales at the height of his theater career.

Madea came to be the connecting character in almost all of his plays to come. Based off of his loving mother, and several other matriarchs in his life, Madea, a gun-toting, part-time Christian, and sexually explicit grandmother (played by Perry himself) helped propel Tyler Perry into a new stratosphere. Much of this success is attributed to a new character that Perry introduced into the zeitgeist. After a few failures and a slight success with I Know I’ve Been Changed on the “chitlin’ circuit”, he finally struck gold with 2000’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself. After leaving his abusive childhood home, Perry went to Atlanta to pursue a career as a playwright. He recalls weekly church services that they attended together as a source of connection for the two. He was raised in a physically abusive home with his father, but he has maintained that his mother was a bright light in his life. Tyler Perry (born Emmitt Perry Jr.) has spoken openly about his upbringing.

List of tyler perry movies and plays