OWN still bets on Tyler Perry’s ‘Single Moms Club’ after film bombs

Tyler Perry’s “The Single Moms Club� was greeted over the weekend with disastrous box office and horrible reviews.

Most networks that had been planning to base a series on the film might be having second thoughts about those plans after seeing the evidence that the movie not only tanked with Perry’s core audience, but marked his worst showing ever at the box office.

But OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, isn’t most networks. Perry apparently can do whatever he wants at OWN, with Winfrey’s blessing.

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Spokespersons for OWN said the network is still moving forward with a series based on “The Single Moms Club.� The network and Perry had announced in January that the hourlong series about a group of single mothers who bond together in facing their individual struggles would debut in the fall, and would be the fourth Perry show for the network.

The movie, which debuted Friday, pulled in $8.3 million, falling about $10 million short of expectations. It’s Perry’s lowest opening ever as a director, debuting weaker than 2007’s “Daddy’s Little Girls,� which earned about $11 million.

“The Single Moms Club� is Perry’s final film under his distribution deal with Lionsgate. The producer-writer-director is turning his focus on his OWN projects. He is the only producer to have scripted series on the network.

The partnership between Winfrey and Perry has been a winner on some levels. “The Have and the Have Nots� has generated the network’s highest ratings.

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However, based on its box office and critical reception, a series based on “The Single Moms Club� is unlikely to have the same success.

The film scored a dismal 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The Los Angeles Times’ Gary Goldstein said the film was marked by “awfulness� and “clunky stereotypes.� The New York Times’ Nicolas Rapold wrote that Perry is “complacent� in his filmmaking, and that “there’s probably more dramatic tension in a car pool than in the film’s collection of predicaments.�

Perry doesn’t screen his films or TV series for critics, feeling that his fans are his only barometer.

Wonder what he would have to say about the reception for “Single Moms Club.�

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