{"id":19898,"date":"2025-07-18T21:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T21:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/19898\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T21:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T21:19:08","slug":"tyler-perry-continues-building-his-empire-on-black-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/19898\/","title":{"rendered":"Tyler Perry continues building his empire on Black pain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tyler Perry has had one hell of a year. On June 13\u2014Friday The 13th\u2014the film and TV mogul was hit with a $260 million lawsuit<\/a> by actor Derek Dixon, who appeared on Perry shows The Oval and Ruthless. Dixon claims Perry created \u201ca coercive, sexually exploitative dynamic\u201d that led to, among other things, sexual harassment, battery, and assault. The Hollywood Reporter followed the news with a deep dive<\/a> into the various lawsuits and complaints lodged against Tyler Perry Studios, mostly involving unfair labor practices.<\/p>\n

All of this came after the release of his new film Straw, which has been Netflix\u2019s most streamed, English-language movie for several weeks<\/a>. The hella harrowing drama stars Taraji P. Henson as a single mother who goes through one truly bad day: She loses her job, her apartment, and even her sick little girl, who gets taken away by Child Protective Services. This emotionally fried heroine ends up accidentally robbing a bank (don\u2019t ask) and reluctantly holding a bank manager (morning-show vet Sherri Shepherd) and others hostage when a detective (Teyana Taylor) and other law enforcers start showing up outside.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In typical Perry fashion, Straw puts its protagonist and audience through the emotional wringer. It comes with a shockingly sad, climactic plot twist that\u2019s already led to TikTokers posting jaw-dropped reactions from their friends and parents. Heart-pulverizing films like Straw have made Perry the billionaire that he is today. Twenty years ago, the then-gospel playwright adapted his hit play Diary Of A Mad Black Woman (he wrote the script, but music-video director Darren Grant helmed it) for the big screen, introducing film audiences to Perry\u2019s most prized creation: the gun-wielding auntie Madea<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the $5 million film grossing $50 million, Perry would go on to adapt\u2014and eventually direct\u2014more low-budget, highly profitable film versions of his plays, building up a loyal following that\u2019s predominantly Black and female. By 2019, the man had built his own studios<\/a> in Atlanta, where he writes, produces and directs most of the movies and TV shows that come out of it. (It\u2019s also been rented out to Marvel Studios for several of its films, including Black Panther, and series like The Walking Dead.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tyler Perry accuser Derek Dixon explains why he came forward with allegations<\/a>Read This: Tyler Perry assault lawsuit reopens conversation on labor practices<\/a><\/p>\n

But these money moves and investments come from a single source: Perry has built his Black-owned empire off of being a one-man dispenser of Black pain. His non-Madea films<\/a> mostly consist of Black characters (primarily Black women) engaging in extreme drama that verges on cruelty. A woman is a bit on the plump side? Let\u2019s have her continually tormented<\/a> by her philandering husband! A woman is having an affair? Let\u2019s give her HIV<\/a>! A woman is just trying to take care of her two kids? Let\u2019s have Michael Ealy kill them both<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Being the hardcore Christian that he is, Perry usually caters to his church-going fans by punishing characters who stray away from God and good, heavenly values. However, as Straw proves, Perry is always ready to send any Black woman (and the audience) straight to the breaking point.<\/p>\n

Critics, from film scribes to TikTokers, have long voiced their displeasure at Perry\u2019s constant need to create African-American agony on film and TV. \u201cIn Perry\u2019s world, pain isn\u2019t just a narrative device, it\u2019s the entire plot,\u201d wrote<\/a> Nigerian film reporter Brooks Eti-Inyene. \u201cCharacters don\u2019t grow through struggle; they exist solely within it. Women are cheated on, beaten, ridiculed. Men are either saviors or sociopaths. Redemption comes only after the world has chewed you up and spat you out.\u201d Media commentator The PrideBrarian put it more bluntly<\/a>: \u201cTyler Perry builds his stories around these stereotypes, and he has humiliated us to build his empire.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A.V. Club-contributing critic Jourdain Searles hasn\u2019t seen Straw, and probably never will\u2014she gave up on Perry when she saw Acrimony<\/a>, a 2018 film that also starred Henson. \u201cI used to watch all of his films for a really long time,\u201d Searles tells The A.V. Club. \u201cI like to know my enemies, so I would just watch everything. But, at some point, I started to get really exhausted and kind of offended by the fact that he refuses to do better work or take better considerations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that Tyler Perry has been mostly dropping projects on streaming platforms, the look of these films is becoming just as poorly executed as the storytelling.\u200b\u200b Perry famously boasted<\/a> that he got his Roger Corman on and shot his first Netflix movie, 2020\u2019s excruciating A Fall From Grace<\/a> (another film where a Black woman goes through hell), in five days. For someone who has two decades in the Hollywood game, you would think that Perry would have evolved as a filmmaker\u2014or, at least, brought in other Black artists to make better content. But, unlike his contemporary Black Hollywood multihyphenates like Jordan Peele, Issa Rae, and Donald Glover (who lampooned Perry and his studio in an Atlanta episode<\/a>, which Glover later admitted<\/a> Perry had advance knowledge of), Tyler Perry isn\u2019t one to spread the wealth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As his infamous \u201cWORK ETHIC!!\u201d post<\/a> showed us, Perry writes, produces, and directs every joint at Tyler Perry Studios (the sole exception is Peeples<\/a>), where it\u2019s always quantity over quality. \u201cHe has no respect for cinema. He has no respect for the form. He has no respect for the writers. He definitely doesn\u2019t respect Black women,\u201d Searles says. \u201cI don\u2019t know who he respects aside from, I guess, himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jay Jacksonrao, who co-hosts the Black On Black Cinema podcast<\/a>, has also given up on Perry flicks. On a recent episode<\/a>, he and co-host Micah Payne said they passed on reviewing Straw in favor of reviewing Mike Leigh\u2019s Hard Truths<\/a>, which features an amazing performance from Marianne Jean-Baptiste as a struggling Black Londoner. Jacksonrao thinks that if Perry really wants a proper entertainment empire, he should use all that self-centeredness to get more Black people involved behind the scenes. \u201cLet\u2019s weaponize that arrogance, man,\u201d Jacksonrao tells The A.V. Club. \u201cUse that power and do awesome shit. Jordan Peele just got on the scene with directing movies, and he\u2019s doing what you should have been doing for the last 10 years. Like, come on, man. That\u2019s what I wanna see from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the harassment allegations, Jacksonrao believes that whatever happens, Perry will still have his faithful fanbase. \u201cPeople who love him and love his work are generally a pretty religious group of folks,\u201d he says. Searles believes Perry is too well-connected to take a mighty fall. \u201cI hope he has to pay up, but I don\u2019t really think that it\u2019s going to happen,\u201d she says. \u201cBecause he\u2019s got a lot of protection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Searles points to a meandering, three-and-a-half-minute speech<\/a> on racial erasure Perry gave at the 2025 BET Awards. Along with being a major content producer<\/a> for BET and its BET+ streaming service (Tyler Perry\u2019s Divorced Stories is currently the streamer\u2019s most-watched series<\/a>), Perry has taken it upon himself to serve as a network spokesman. \u201cI was just like, why did he just get on stage and talk incoherently,\u201d she says. \u201cThen I checked [online] and I saw that he\u2019s one of the partial owners of BET+. All their money is tied up with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chances are even if Perry does have to endure a lengthy, money-siphoning trial, he\u2019ll probably still make millions during that time by churning out films and TV shows that pander to God-fearing, toxic drama-craving Black audiences. His popular brand of melodramatic mediocrity is practically the reason why Tubi is flooded with dozens of low-budget, low-quality straight-to-streamers made by and starring African Americans\u2014movies that are even more awful than Perry\u2019s oeuvre. (You can go viral just by posting a clip<\/a> from African American Psycho: The Hip Hop Freak, a movie that\u2019s an American Psycho ripoff based on the current Diddy scandal<\/a>.) Since Perry has proven that Black people can make bad but successful films just like white people, it was only a matter of time until low-rent filmmakers like Jonathan Milton<\/a> or Jamal Hill<\/a> began following his lead. These prolific creators are cranking them out just like Perry, who\u2019s helmed 14 films since 2017. In that same time, Jordan Peele has directed three features. Steve McQueen has directed three, and an anthology series. Ava DuVernay has directed two.<\/p>\n

If Perry wants to keep making so many movies about Black women, he should take a backseat and simply finance some rising female filmmakers of color. That\u2019s what Searles would like to see. \u201cHe\u2019s in Atlanta, and I\u2019m from Georgia,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd there\u2019s all this Southern work being done. Why hasn\u2019t he worked with Channing Godfrey Peoples? Why not bring her into the fold? Miss Juneteenth<\/a> was a big deal. Tayarisha Poe, that\u2019s another young Black filmmaker that has been making really lovely work. It\u2019s like he\u2019s not aware of any of this. All he\u2019s really interested in is profiting off Black actresses.\u201d<\/p>\n

As long as Perry stays stubbornly stuck in his creative ways, ignoring and overlooking the fresh new talent that could teach him a thing or two, his legacy will be just as vapid and troubled as his movies. Says Searles, \u201cHe doesn\u2019t have any interest in fostering a new talent, because he hasn\u2019t honed his own talent.\u201d<\/p>\n