Box-Office Champ Tyler Perry Helps the ‘Times’ Learn About Black People

Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? won the weekend box-office race, with the Janet Jackson–starring romantic comedy taking in $21.5 million, easily beating out new movies starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, and Joaquin Phoenix. (“Tyler Perry is a mogul,� Paul Dergarabedian helpfully explained.) For a change, the New York Times was prepared for a Perry-led onslaught on the box office, as they flooded the zone this weekend on the writer-director. A “Sunday Styles� profile revealed that Perry feels his movies are becoming more spiritual and also that he is hoping to buy an island soon. And on Saturday, the “Arts� section ran a review of the movie and a news piece that both discovered something revelatory: Black people like to shout at the movie screen.

From John Eligon’s news story:

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>As afternoon gave way to evening yesterday at the Regal E-Walk Stadium 13 movie theaters in Times Square, the hollers of audience members during a showing of “Why Did I Get Married?� rang loud and clear at certain points.

“Slap her,� one person said.

“You better take that man,� another shouted.

“That’s right,� yelled yet another.

And from Jeanette Catsoulis’s review:

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ckquote>More than anything, a Tyler Perry movie is an interactive experience, and “Why Did I Get Married?� is no exception. At the screening I attended, it was often difficult to hear the dialogue between bouts of enthusiastic applause and shouts of “You go, girl!�

This reflected pleasure is crucial to understanding Mr. Perry’s appeal; it’s also extremely seductive. If you can make it through a viewing without at least one outburst of “Right on!,� then you’re a better woman than I am.

Audiences Get ‘Married’ at Box Office [Variety]
Sometimes Piety Isn’t Squeaky Clean [NYT]
A New Movie Brings Out Throngs of Black Women [NYT]
Four Couples Gather to Ask One Question: Can’t We All Just Get Along? [NYT]