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Moviegoers Flock to Tyler Perry's Latest Offering

The surprise at this weekend's box office? Why Did I Get Married?, a new film by Tyler Perry. The film was the top-grossing movie of the weekend.

Perry was able to bring in $21.5 million over the weekend through a combination of a deep and devoted fan base, support from Oprah Winfrey — who he considers a mentor — and by casting pop singer Janet Jackson in the film.

Perry, a self-taught playwright in his mid-30s who has developed a series of plays on black life, is working on his next project, Meet the Browns, due out next year. The movie is an adaptation of one of Perry's early plays.

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Karen Grigsby Bates
Karen Grigsby Bates is the Senior Correspondent for Code Switch, a podcast that reports on race and ethnicity. A veteran NPR reporter, Bates covered race for the network for several years before becoming a founding member of the Code Switch team. She is especially interested in stories about the hidden history of race in America—and in the intersection of race and culture. She oversees much of Code Switch's coverage of books by and about people of color, as well as issues of race in the publishing industry. Bates is the co-author of a best-selling etiquette book (Basic Black: Home Training for Modern Times) and two mystery novels; she is also a contributor to several anthologies of essays. She lives in Los Angeles and reports from NPR West.