Diary Of A Mad Black Woman Producer Recalls Tyler Perry’s Surprise Hit

For anyone knowledgeable about the stage play, Diary of a Mad Black Woman’s success wasn’t much of a surprise. Tyler Perry had built a cult following amongst the Black community with a series of stage plays starring his character Madea. So, there was some anticipation for the film when it was released in 2005. But what drove the film’s success was a demographic starving for content. In the mid-2000s, there were still films with Black leads being released, but they weren’t being pushed by Hollywood’s top brass like those from the 1990s and early 2000s. In the end, the film and Perry served fed an audience wanting to see themselves in cinema again.