Netflix has a bunch of extremely proven tactics to turn to when it comes to generating big hits for its never-ending audience of streaming converts. From adapting hit novels to reeling in major stars, it seems to know that some moves just tend to work out – and another approach it favours is working with some creators repeatedly.
Tyler Perry is just about as prolific as they come – a writer, actor and director whose personal net worth has placed him in rarefied air (meaning he's a genuine billionaire). That's because he knows his audience inside out, and knows what they want from him – nice, simple stories about family, love and betrayal. That's what Why Did I Get Married Again? seems to offer.
The film stars some staple characters from Perry's universe, since it's a threequel folling on from Why Did I Get Married (2007) and Why Did I Get Married Too? (2010) – so we're seeing the couples from those movies later in their lives, now settled into parenthood and watching their kids go through the relationship trials and tribulations that they know so well.
In fact, two of their kids are getting married to each other, which means there are all sorts of minor and major tensions to work out about who's in charge of what for the wedding, the core partnership itself, and how the older couples all get along with each other as their lives change. It looks like heartwarming stuff, but particularly for those who enjoyed the last two movies years ago.
Honestly, movies in which parents reflect on how they brought their kids up, and in which those kids have moments where they realise how they're like their parents or different from them, are absolutely bankers when it comes to emotional climaxes. Expect catharsis and almost certainly a happy ending – although the trailer makes it obvious there will be some fun twists along the way.
The film's being added to Netflix on 9 September, so it's still a good couple of months away, but that just underlines the fact that Netflix knows this one could be a big hit. It normally reserves this sort of slow build up for its bigger properties, after all.
