Tyler Perry has made audiences laugh and cry with his Madea movies and deep dramas like For Colored Girls, A Jazzman’s Blues, Good Deeds and more. However, a lot of his recent movies have gotten critically panned, with Rotten Tomatoes scores ranging from 56% to as low as 0%. The filmmaker/screenwriter/actor fortunately prefers to avoid critics’ reviews saying, “I’m not spending the money for you to tear it apart.”
The Governors Award honoree has achieved success in his business Tyler Perry Studios, which has opened the doors to aspiring actors, writers and directors of color. His movies of perseverance, redemption and justice have connected with audiences and made Perry such a well-known figure in the entertainment industry. But it doesn’t mean the critics are always in agreement with the audience on where they stand with his movies.
The Gone Girl actor told The Times of London (via Deadline) that he hasn’t read a critical review on his films for the past 20 years, with a strong stance on why:
I’m very clear and intentional on the stories that I’m telling. I’m not spending the money for you to tear it apart. You don’t get it. It’s not written for you. The audience gets it. So let’s look at what they say.
It appears that Tyler Perry cares more about what audiences have to say about his movies than the critics’ thoughts. For instance, the House of Payne developer was proud that 26 million people watched Netflix’s Fall From Grace in its first week despite getting a 15% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. He was also happy to find out that the latest film in the Madea franchise, A Madea Homecoming, hit the milestone of being in the Top 10 in 33 countries. Perry saw this win as proof that movies with an all-Black cast are indeed seen on a global scale.
And we can’t forget that the Don’t Look Up actor’s recent Amazon movie Divorce in the Black hit an amazing stat of 498 million minutes watched during its first four days on the streamer, even though it’s one of Perry’s lowest-rated Rotten Tomatoes-scored films. Clearly the audience’s numbers touch the American filmmaker’s heart more than anything the critics have to say.
As Tyler Perry has current deals with Amazon Studios, Netflix and Paramount, the commercially successful entertainment figure writes his scripts all on his own and demands no edits from his commissioners. Perry explains this is all the more reason why he prioritizes what his audience wants over the critics:
If you’ve hired me to speak to my audience, then you have to let me do that.
The Haves and the Have Nots creator’s latest Netflix project certainly seems to be made to speak to audiences. Tyler Perry’s WWII movie The Six Triple Eight stars Kerry Washington as the commanding officer of the 6888th Postal Directory Battalion, tasked with clearing three years of undelivered mail to reconnect soldiers with their families. Perry brought the forgotten all-Black, all-female battalion to the forefront and honored their legacy by showing their perseverance, teamwork, and solidarity boosting troop morale during WWII.
Netflix subscribers can look at these unsung heroes and feel the strength that they can accomplish big tasks the way these ladies did. The 2024 Netflix movie may have a 50% from the critics based on 10 reviews, but I’m curious what the audience score will be throughout the week.
By “not spending the money” on critics or reading their reviews, Tyler Perry can focus on delivering stories that mean something to him and the audiences who watch them. No matter what the critics say, there’s no shortage of viewers looking forward to Perry’s next projects. The Six Triple Eight is available to see in theaters on limited release and will hit your Netflix subscription on December 20th.