Tyler Perry gives Lionsgate one last hit

A Madea Family Funeral opens with strong gate

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 guntoting grandmother, sold an estimated $27 million in tickets at 2,442 North American theatres, or roughly 30-per-cent more than analysts had predicted.

The turnout was enough to challenge How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World 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 twoweek domestic total of $97.7 million, according to com-Score. The big-budget animated sequel has collected an additional $277 million overseas.

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 world- wide 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 totalled $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 Perr y 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.”

WE LOOK FORWARD TO DOING MORE PROJECTS WITH HIM.