Tyler Perry has had a big 2022 on Netflix as his new movie A Madea Homecoming has hit milestones left and right, both on the streamer’s Top 10 list but also on Perry’s own list of personal accomplishments. Now A Madea Homecoming’s hit a new milestone and it’s one that Ryan Reynolds’ Free Guy also hit: Crossing one billion minutes of streaming – yes billion with a “b”-- during its first week available streaming.
Taking to Instagram to celebrate the movie's latest achievement, Tyler Perry shared the following thanks to the fanbase that has stuck with Madea for many years. In fact, we previously thought Madea had been retired by Perry before A Madea Homecoming came out. He wrote after finding out about the billions streamed opening week:
I HAVE NO WORDS!! All I can say is THANK YOU! #AMadeaHomecoming
After Tyler Perry shared his thanks, he heard back from a lot of people, including those who worked on the film, oh and Mr. Ryan Reynolds himself. Brandon Black, who plays Tim in A Madea Homecoming, was seemingly shocked by the news, noting, “Man….what??? Our movie doing THAT??!??!?” Gabrielle Dennis, who plays Laura, also commented, “Ayyyyyeee let's go Team!!!” Ryan Reynolds, on the other hand, simply dropped by to note he’d seen the numbers (and had perhaps seen that Free Guy had not quite eclipsed the Madea-led movie), cutely commenting, “Hi, Tyler!”
Both A Madea Homecoming and Free Guy headed to streaming the same week in February, hitting their respective platforms during the week of February 21-27. Free Guy began airing on Disney's streamer for those with a Disney+ subscription on February 23, with A Madea Homecoming following on February 25. The Disney+ title landed 1.03 billion minutes of streaming in its first week and the Netflix flick landed 1.04, which means Mr. Tyler Perry’s movie landed ahead in the numbers by a margin. (via Variety).
Of course, in some ways that’s even more impressive for Free Guy than it was for A Madea Homecoming. While the latest Madea movie debuted on streaming, the Ryan Reynolds starrer opened in theaters and made $331.5 million globally before hitting a home platform. You have to think in that movie’s case a lot of the people showing up to watch the movie on Disney+ were repeat viewers, not simply just viewers, though I have no hard data to back that.
Meanwhile, now Ryan Reynolds has his own movie crushing on Netflix. That film is The Adam Project, and streaming milestones are also happening for that movie, and for Reynolds himself. The actor only recently became the only movie star to have had three films land on Netflix’s coveted Top 10 movies list. His other two movies for the platform were 6 Underground and Red Notice.
So, I guess the only thing left to say is that Mr. Perry has a little ground to catch up to Mr. Reynolds on that particular streaming service, though only time will tell if that’s a goal for the prolific writer, director, producer and actor. Can’t wait to see what milestones both popular Hollywood figures hit next.
