Tyler Perry Studios is an American film production studio in Atlanta, Georgia founded by actor, filmmaker, and playwright Tyler Perry in 2006. In 2019, Perry celebrated the grand opening of his newest Atlanta studio location; he purchased of the former Fort McPherson complex in 2015 to make it the new home of Tyler Perry Studios. Tyler Perry Studios is the largest film production studio in the United States, and established Perry as the first African-American to outright own a major film production studio. Through 34th Street Films, a production arm of Tyler Perry Studios, Perry guides the work of other filmmakers. In 2018, Perry sold his previous studio location opened in 2008 to another minority-owned film production company. The previous studio location occupied two former Delta Air Lines affiliated buildings in the Greenbriar area of southwest Atlanta, and included of sets and office space. Tyler Perry Studios is a notable resource for Atlanta's robust economy. The company often advertises for film and crew positions at its southwest Atlanta location.
History
Perry has full ownership of his movies, and Lions Gate Entertainment serves as his distributor for all of his films. His first movie, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, produced on a budget of $5.5 million, became an unexpected commercial success prompting widespread discussion among industry watchers about whether middle-class African-Americans were simply not being addressed by mainstream Hollywood movies. Its final gross box office receipts were $50.6 million, although it was critically panned scoring only 16 percent approval rating on the website Rotten Tomatoes. On its opening weekend, February 24, 2006, Perry's film version of Madea's Family Reunion opened at #1 with $30.3 million. The film eventually grossed $65 million and, like Diary, almost all of it in the United States. The film was jump-started by an hour-long appearance by Perry and his co-stars on The Oprah Winfrey Show. His next project for Lions Gate, Daddy's Little Girls, starring Gabrielle Union and Idris Elba was released in the U.S. on February 14, 2007. It grossed over $31 million. Perry wrote, directed, produced and starred in his next movie, Why Did I Get Married?, which was released on October 12, 2007. It opened as the top-grossing movie in its first weekend, earning $21.4 million at the box office. It is loosely based on the play which Perry wrote in 2004. Filming began March 5, 2007, in Whistler, British Columbia, Vancouver, then Atlanta, where Perry opened his own studio. Janet Jackson, Sharon Leal, Jill Scott, and Tasha Smith appear in the film. Perry's 2008 film, Meet the Browns, which was released on March 21, opened at #2 with a $20,082,809 weekend gross. The Family That Preys opened on September 12, 2008, and grossed over $35.1 million as of October. Madea Goes to Jail opened at #1 on February 20, 2009, grossing $41 million and becoming his largest opening to date. This was Perry's seventh film with Lions Gate Entertainment. On May 1, 2012, a four-alarm fire engulfed portions of the studio complex, causing the partial collapse of one building. Less than three months later, another fire broke out on the roof of another building on the morning of August 27, 2012. On November 20, 2019, it hosted the MSNBC and Washington Post 2020 Democratic Party presidential debate on the Oprah Winfreysound stage. It also hosted Miss Universe 2019 on December 8.
Studio locations
Before moving to its first southwest Atlanta location in 2008, the studios used the former studio space at 99 Krog Street in Inman Park on the BeltLine in central Atlanta. Perry had purchased the land from Atlanta Stage Works in 2006 for a reported $7 million. The studios were later converted into the Krog Street Market. In 2019, Tyler Perry Studios officially moved into of the former Fort McPherson complex in southwest Atlanta. The studio has of the site dedicated to standing permanent sets, including a replica of a luxury hotel lobby, a White House replica, a mansion, a mock cheap hotel, a trailer park set, and a real 1950s-style diner that was relocated from a town away. It has a residential neighborhood cul-de-sac with 12 homes, many of them with actual functioning interiors...furnished and decorated, not simply "facades." It also hosts 12 soundstages named after highly accomplished African-Americans in the entertainment industry.
