Why’d it Bomb?/Why’d it Hit?: A Madea Christmas and Both Boo! A Madea Halloween Movies

Kevthewriter questions the box office appeal of Madea’s holiday movies.

Welp, Halloween is over and, well, the Christmas season is supposed to start in December but, let’s be honest, Thanksgiving is basically the middle sibling of Halloween and Christmas. It hasn’t even had a Madea movie yet! But you know what holidays have been the subjects of Madea movies? Halloween and Christmas!

Now to say A Madea Christmas bombed is really exaggerating. It made $53 million dollars, which is about the norm for a Madea movie. Most Madea movies make around $40-$60 million dollars and are really only modest successes at the box office at best. But, because they do make some money, Tyler Perry keeps making them. However, Boo! A Madea Halloween 1 is the second highest grossing Madea movie, as it made $73 million dollars (the highest grossing is Madea Goes to Jail, which made $90 million dollars). But, out of all the Madea movies, why was this one of the most successful ones? Not to stereotype but you’d think that, because of the Christmas theme, A Madea Christmas would be the more successful of the two because the Madea movies tend to attract a very Christian audience and Christmas does have origins tied into Christianity (even if those origins have been put in the back burner over the years to say the least). Yet it’s the Halloween ones more people went to see! Why?

The release date might’ve had something to do with it. When Boo! A Madea Halloween came out, it did not have much competition to contend with. The Accountant was making some money but, other than that, Jack Reacher was bombing domestically (it made way more than Madea did thanks to its worldwide BO though), The Girl on the Train was already on its 3rd week of release, and there wasn’t much else out. Considering its a horror movie, Ouija 2 could’ve threatened its chance at being #1 at the box office but, surprisingly, it didn’t. Around fall, people don’t usually go to the movies as much and, with the lack of competition, it probably gave Madea a chance to be #1 at the box office. In fact, it seems like the same thing is happening with Boo 2! Most movies are bombing and/or underperforming right now which gives it the chance to be the top movie at the box office thanks to Madea’s dedicated fanbase. And it’s working!

A Madea Christmas, on the other hand, came out in December, when all the event movies are out. It had to compete with the likes of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Frozen, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and Thor: The Dark World.  The Hobbit and Frozen (in its 4th week no less) ended up overtaking it at the box office (The Hunger Games and Thor didn’t, sure, but they were already making way more at the box office so they didn’t need to by that point). As a result, A Madea Christmas just didn’t have a chance at being at the top.

When you think about that, it’s almost surprising it made any money at all! But I guess the Madea movies just have a very dedicated audience. How dedicated they are, though, may depend somewhat on the release date.

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jeffthewildman
6 years ago

“But I guess the Madea movies just have a very dedicated audience. ” They do. There are people who will show up for anything Tyler Perry does, even though the quality is likely to be low. I’ve seen a couple of the Madea movies and found them to be pretty mediocre. The Madea character is best in small doses. The one non-Madea Perry movie I saw (that he directed, not counting acting turns in Star Trek, Alex Cross and Gone Girl) was Temptation, which was godawful. In general when it comes to Perry, I get the jokes. I just don’t… Read more »

SJCarras
SJCarras
6 years ago

They do it for me!

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