Tyler Perry Gives Lionsgate One Last Hit as Madea Says Goodbye - The New York Times

Tyler Perry Gives Lionsgate One Last Hit as Madea Says Goodbye

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Tyler Perry as Madea in “A Madea Family Funeral.” He has said it will be his final film appearance as the character.CreditCreditChip Bergman/Lionsgate

By Brooks Barnes

March 3, 2019

LOS ANGELES — For 14 years, Tyler Perry has been Lionsgate’s secret weapon. As the rest of Hollywood underestimated the appeal of his movies time and again (and again), Perry served up 20 films to Lionsgate, selling more than $1 billion in tickets and pouring profits into the studio’s home entertainment coffers.

That partnership came to an informal close over the weekend with the release of Perry’s low-budget “A Madea Family Funeral.” As ever, box-office analysts misjudged interest. “A Madea Family Funeral,” ostensibly marking the final big-screen appearance by Perry’s gun-toting grandmother, sold an estimated $27 million in tickets at 2,442 North American theaters, or roughly 30 percent more than analysts had predicted.

The turnout was enough to challenge “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” the megamovie in the marketplace, for first place at the weekend box office. In the end, “Hidden World” (Universal) pulled ahead to collect roughly $30 million at 4,286 cinemas, for a two-week domestic total of $97.7 million, according to Comscore. The big-budget animated sequel has collected an additional $277 million overseas.

[Read Tyler Perry’s essay about the end of Madea]

Universal also had a good three days with “Green Book,” the contentious winner of best picture at the recent Academy Awards. “Green Book,” the feel-good story of a white chauffeur and his black client in segregation-era America, took in about $5 million, more than double what it collected the previous weekend. “Green Book,” which got off to a poor start at the box office in November, has now collected $188 million worldwide for Universal and Participant Media.

Even so, the most significant weekend results involved Lionsgate. The studio urgently needed a hit following a string of flops that included “Robin Hood” and “Hunter Killer.” Last year, Lionsgate released 19 movies through various labels and took in a total in North America of about $379 million, its worst annual showing since 2007.

In 2017, when Lionsgate had breakouts like “Wonder” and “La La Land,” domestic ticket sales totaled $884 million.

The studio expects to turn a corner starting next month, when it will release a new “Hellboy” movie. A third chapter in the “John Wick” action series and “Long Shot,” a comedy starring Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron, will arrive in May.

But Lionsgate can no longer rely on Perry. Going forward, Paramount Pictures has exclusive first-look rights to his movies as part of an overarching deal with Viacom, its corporate owner.

“Tyler Perry is an incomparable talent, and our door is always open to him,” Lionsgate said in a statement. “We look forward to doing more projects with him in the future.”

“It’s been a great experience to work with Lionsgate over the course of 20 films,” Perry said. “I couldn’t have asked for a more collaborative team to help bring my stories to audiences.”

Correction: March 3, 2019

An earlier version of this article misstated the number of films Tyler Perry made for Lionsgate. It is 20, not 19.