Tyler Perry’s new movie Madea’s Big Happy Family which has already made some $42 million, has also rehashed the nearly 2-year old beef between Tyler Perry and Spike Lee.

Check Out the videos of this on-going beef HERE.

How are their arguments any stronger when you look at Spike Lee’s and Tyler Perry’s careers in numbers?

spiketylernumbers

SpikeStylergraph

Adding the Beef to this data, what do we get?

Above all, don’t Spike Lee and Tyler Perry need to have respect for each other? What do you say?

18 COMMENTS

  1. Respect ain’t got nothing to do with it. Money $$$$. The movie industry race is $$$ and Tyler Perry is in the lead. No doubt about that.
    Now Spike Lee needs to recognize!

  2. Is it possible for them to agree that they make different kinds of movies and appeal to different parts of society? Can we see the data as a reason for them to acknowledge how much they have achieved, not to compete with each other, and how much they should be examples to the black community in particular?

  3. In light of this data, there’s no other way of seeing this debate. Or rather dialogue. Tyler Perry has achieved more in the movie industry $$$. Other discussions are merely, subjective. Either you like Spike movie or TP movies, or both, well, it’s up to you. Whether you think TP is a talented filmmaker, is up to you.
    Numbers do speak louder than words though and if Spike wants to continue this dialogue or rather, debate, then he need s to acknowledge that TP is an achiever, in fact, a better one at that!

  4. I don’t know about being an achiever and all that. So you make $$$ because you own the McDonald’s franchise and feed black people with crap. Hurray! Well done, rich man!

  5. Since Spike Lee made She Hates me which only made $1.5 million profit, he’s only made two moves to date. What on earth does he want black people to be watching when they go to the theater? White tales? Why the heck does he think Tyler Perry is not good enough to pluck the hole he left?
    Spike Lee hasn’t quite trained anyone to be at his level to take over from where he left off. Now TP is doing it by himself and all he wants to do is complain. He can go to hell.

  6. In terms of money, Tyler Perry definitely has the upper hand. But while TP caters to his niche audience and has developed a huge devoted fan base, Spike Lee’s filmography is very versatile. He gives us a different film every time we go to the theater. I guess they both find success with different strategies.

  7. Sure sure sure. Spike Lee and Tyler Perry are both successful! But who’s more successful? Tyler Perry. Need we say more?
    It wouldn’t have been such a heated argument with emotions running wild if Spike Lee had not instigated the whole damn f*8king thing by calling Perry Movies, Coonery and Buffoonery! What the heck? Again, he can go to HELL! And I don’t care if he comes back from HELL to his sh*tty GARDEN!

  8. You can call a drug dealer successful, you know what I mean? Or you can call Obama successful.
    It depends who you are looking at for inspiration. And in this movie business, it ain’t Tyler Perry!

    • Define ‘Inspiration’. If you gonna go there, we gonna go there. Inspiration? Is that an excuse for insulting what Tyler Perry does?

  9. Quite honestly, if I had a choice for entertainment, between a drug dealer or Obama, I would always like to watch a movie/documentary on an infamous drug dealer than watch a famous Obama on the screen? Why would I wonna watch Obama? He’s not entertaining. He’s pure news – maybe also educational but certainly not entertainment. Don’t lose sight of what this is all about – entertainment.
    And I ain’t saying you can’t teach a few things while doing your thing. You can. But if you want to do it like Spike Lee did it for ‘Miracle At Saint Anna’, you’ve got a better chance penning a history book.

  10. Spike Lee is a better filmmaker. That’s it! That’s it! On that note he’s more successful because in this business of filmmaking the art matters just as much as the $$$.
    So in my opinion, if you add the art to this data here, Spike Lee will be balling! Big time. And Tyler Perry is a dwarf (no disrespect to dwarfs) when it comes to the art and craft of story telling and filmmaking!

  11. If not for Inside Man, Spike Lee’s grossing would bee very bad and we won’t be having this debate. Spike needs to respect what what Tyler does!

  12. This is an awkward comparison because most of Spike’s movies are rated R so from the jump there are fewer people that can see it. Most of TP’s movies are PG-13 and cater to a much larger audience. If Spike made a bunch of PG-13 movies I’m sure he’d gross higher than TP if for no other reason than he has 17 movies under his belt. Also, most of Spike’s movies are dramas where as most of TP’s movies are comedies. Comedies tend to sell better than dramas. Upon further review, Spike Lee’s movies do better overseas than they do here. (Spike’s 5 movies w/ legs = $150,781,008; TP’s 4 movies w/ legs = $968,883) It’s a pretty big deal when your movie can gross so well over seas. Though I haven’t seen either man’s entire body of work I’ve noticed that TPs movies tend follow the same formula and at times even very similar story lines. Some of the lines sound like they’d have a home on stage, but not so much in a movie. (Ex: In “Why Did I Get Married Too” when Angela and Marcus get to the resort Marcus huffs and asks, “Why did I get married?” Angela follows with, “Why did I get married too?” More likely to get a chuckle, applause, or people randomly shouting, “woo!” at a play, but in a movie it’s just not good) Spike Lee’s movies are different, but tend to focus on what’s called, “the black experience”.

    • RTF Chick, I don’t know abt all that. for sure, Spike Lee’s movies grossed more abroad but who cares. So people here don’t wonna see your movies, they wonna see Tyler Perry’s stuff though. You know. What is then the “black experience” all about if they people here do not think your movies are worth spending money on? Look, Spike lee makes it seem like, and it seems you do too, that the so called “black experience” is rated R. What kinda nonsense is that?
      The ‘black experience is rated PG 13″. Get with the program!

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