Madea's Family Reunion

Infobox_Film
name = Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion


caption = Theatrical Release Poster
writer = Tyler Perry
starring = Tyler Perry
Blair Underwood
Lynn Whitfield
Boris Kodjoe
Henry Simmons
Lisa Arrindell Anderson
Maya Angelou
Rochelle Aytes
Jenifer Lewis
Tangi Miller
Keke Palmer
Cicely Tyson
Johnny Gill
Cassi Davis
director = Tyler Perry
producer = Michael Paseornek
Peter Block
Tyler Perry
distributor = Lionsgate
released = February 24, 2006
runtime = |107 Minutes language = English
budget = $6 million
preceded_by = "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" (2005)
followed_by = "Madea Goes to Jail" (2009)
imdb_id = 0455612

"Madea's Family Reunion" is a film adaptation of the acclaimed stage production written by Tyler Perry and sequel to "Diary of a Mad Black Woman". It was written and directed by Perry and features him playing several characters, including Mabel "Madea" Simmons. It was released on February 24, 2006. The independent film was produced by Lionsgate.

Plot

An unstoppable force of nature, southern matriarch Madea may have finally taken on more than she can chew. She has just been court ordered to be in charge of Nikki, a rebellious runaway, who has been in foster care most of her life, and is also planning a family reunion. Her niece Lisa is getting married to one of the most eligible bachelors in Atlanta. But the conflict is that her fiance has been abusing her since they've been engaged. Her sister Vanessa, who has two little kids, and has had trouble trusting men, is starting to fall in love with Frankie, a bus driver. The movie shows what goes on in the family as Nikki finally starts to change her rebellious ways thanks to Madea, Vannessa finally starting to trust her man, Lisa learning to stand up against her fiance, the family coming together at the reunion, and Vannessa confronting their mother (and revealing to Lisa) on an incident that happened to her when she was a child. Towards the end of the movie, the day that Vanessa is supposed to marry Carlos, she confronts Carlos and pours hot grits on him, something that Madea had advised and joked about one day when them and Vannessa were talking in the kitchen. At the church Lisa says that she won't be getting married to Carlos, and Frankie walks up to Vanessa & asks her to marry him. They get married that day, and everyone's life ends up changing for the better.

Cast

*Tyler Perry - Madea/ Brian/ Uncle Joe
*Blair Underwood - Carlos
*Lynn Whitfield - Victoria Breaux
*Boris Kodjoe - Frankie Henderson
*Henry Simmons - Isaac
*Lisa Arrindell Anderson - Vanessa Breaux
*Maya Angelou - May
*Rochelle Aytes - Lisa Breaux
*Jenifer Lewis - Milay Jenay Lori
*Tangi Miller - Donna
*Keke Palmer - Nikki Grady
*Cicely Tyson - Myrtle
*Johnny Gill - Wedding Singer
*Cassi Davis - Aunt Sarah

Trivia

*After Lisa pours hot grits all over Carlos, the song "Love and Happiness" by Al Green is played, an obvious reference to the Al Green incident when his former long-time friend intentionally poured hot grits all over Green while he was undressed to get in the shower.

oundtrack

The soundtrack was released by Atlantic Records on February 21st, 2006.

Soundtrack listing:

*Brian McKnight - Find Myself In You
*LL Cool J feat. Mary Mary - We're Gonna Make It
*Chaka Khan - Keep Your Head Up
*Kem - Tonight
*Chaka Khan, Carl Thomas, Yolanda Adams, and Gerald Levert - (Everyday) Family Reunion
*Al Green - Love And Happiness
*Johnny Gill - You For Me (Wedding Song)
*The O'Jays - Family Reunion
*Will Downing - I'll Be
*Rachelle Farrell - Wounds In the Way

Box Office

*Budget: $6 million
*Box Office Receipts: $63.3 million

Small independent filmmaker Tyler Perry has garnered one of the highest wide-release openings to date in 2006, in both gross ($30 million) and screen average ($13,687) [http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?view2=opening&yr=2006&p=.htm] .

"The number one movie is Madea's Family Reunion, a small comedy/melodrama which grossed an astounding $30.3 million from 2,194 venues. It had a super-hot venue average of $13,787...." [http://www.boxofficeprophets.com/column/index.cfm?columnID=9450]

"Playing at 2,194 locations across North America, the film averaged a remarkable estimated $13,788 per screen, demonstrating the enormous breadth and depth of Perry's audience. The debut weekend of Madea's Family Reunion outperformed the opening weekend of Lionsgate's first Tyler Perry film, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, by nearly 40 percent." [http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060226/nysu016.html?.v=39]

The reasoning for the film's relative success [http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2006&wknd=08&p=.htm] , according to Steve Rothenberg, Lions Gate president of domestic distribution, is due to its targeted market appeal, "I believe that we're in all the right theaters...I'm not sure there's much room for expansion [http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=2013&p=.htm] ." To illustrate the point, Lions Gate exit polls [http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=2013&p=.htm] showed 52% of the audience were black women over the age of 35.

External links

* [http://www.madeasfamilyreunionmovie.com Official site]
*ymovies title|1808700732
*imdb title|id=0455612|title=Madea's Family Reunion

Box Office Leaders USA
before = Eight Below
date = February 26
date2 = March 5
year = 2006
after = Failure to Launch