Why Did I Get Married Too? Budget

What Is the Budget of Why Did I Get Married Too? (2010)?

Why Did I Get Married Too? (2010), written and directed by Tyler Perry and distributed by Lionsgate, was produced on a reported budget of $20,000,000. The film was the direct sequel to Perry's 2007 Why Did I Get Married?, which had grossed $61,400,000 worldwide against a $13,000,000 budget. The sequel reunited the original ensemble cast across an annual reunion retreat that excavates new relationship crises and trauma.

The $20,000,000 budget reflected Perry's mid-career theatrical economics. The figure represented a significant escalation from the $13,000,000 first film, reflecting the entire ensemble cast's salary increases (Janet Jackson, Tyler Perry, Jill Scott, Tasha Smith, Sharon Leal, Malik Yoba, Michael Jai White, Richard T. Jones, Lamman Rucker, Louis Gossett Jr.) and the addition of a high-profile guest cast (including a notable cameo from Cicely Tyson). Tyler Perry Studios produced the film through Perry's Atlanta-based studio operations, with Lionsgate handling theatrical distribution under their long-standing Tyler Perry distribution agreement.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

Why Did I Get Married Too?'s reported $20,000,000 budget was distributed across these production areas:

• Above-the-Line Talent: Janet Jackson reprised her role as Patricia at a significantly elevated rate following her commercial success on the first film. Tyler Perry, Jill Scott, Tasha Smith, Sharon Leal, Malik Yoba, Michael Jai White, Richard T. Jones, and Lamman Rucker reprised their original ensemble roles at supporting-lead compensation tiers. Louis Gossett Jr. and Cicely Tyson appeared in featured supporting roles.
• Atlanta and Bahamas Production: The film shot at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, and on location in the Bahamas (which doubled for the couples-retreat setting). Both locations leveraged film tax incentive programs, with Georgia's incentive program providing substantial production-cost rebates.
• Bahamas Location Shoot: The annual couples-retreat sequences were filmed on location in the Bahamas during early 2010, requiring international location-permit, accommodation, and crew-coordination costs that drove the second-largest budget line item.
• Production Design and Sets: The film's practical interior sets (the four couples' homes, the Bahamas resort interiors, the climactic courtroom set) were built on Tyler Perry Studios soundstages and dressed for the contemporary American upper-middle-class setting.
• Score and Music: Aaron Zigman composed the score, working in a relationship-drama orchestral register. The film also featured a Janet Jackson original song, "Nothing," performed over the closing credits, which Jackson recorded specifically for the film as a tie-in single.
• Marketing Setup: Lionsgate positioned the film as the studio's April 2010 ensemble-drama Easter-weekend release, with marketing emphasizing the Janet Jackson and Cicely Tyson casting and the franchise continuation from the first film. Lionsgate's Tyler Perry distribution model relied on targeted faith-and-family-audience marketing combined with mainstream-press visibility.

How Does Why Did I Get Married Too?'s Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $20,000,000, Why Did I Get Married Too? sits in the middle of Tyler Perry's theatrical-feature production tier:

• Why Did I Get Married? (2007): Budget $13,000,000 | Worldwide $61,400,000. The original film cost a third less than the sequel and earned a nearly identical worldwide gross, suggesting modestly diminished returns on the higher budget.
• Madea Goes to Jail (2009): Budget $18,500,000 | Worldwide $90,500,000. Perry's previous theatrical release cost slightly less than Why Did I Get Married Too? and earned roughly 50% more worldwide.
• I Can Do Bad All by Myself (2009): Budget $15,000,000 | Worldwide $51,800,000. Perry's contemporaneous Mary J. Blige-Taraji P. Henson ensemble drama cost less than the sequel and earned slightly less worldwide.
• The Family That Preys (2008): Budget $15,000,000 | Worldwide $37,100,000. Perry's Alfre Woodard-Kathy Bates ensemble drama benchmarks a higher-budget Perry release that underperformed worldwide.
• For Colored Girls (2010): Budget $21,000,000 | Worldwide $38,300,000. Perry's Ntozake Shange adaptation released later in 2010 cost slightly more than Why Did I Get Married Too? and earned significantly less worldwide.

Why Did I Get Married Too? Box Office Performance

Why Did I Get Married Too? opened on April 2, 2010 (Easter weekend), earning $29,290,464 over its three-day opening weekend and finishing second at the domestic box office behind Clash of the Titans in its opening weekend. The opening was a strong result for a $20,000,000 ensemble drama and exceeded analyst expectations.

Against a reported production budget of $20,000,000, the film needed approximately $45,000,000 in worldwide gross to reach profitability accounting for marketing and distribution costs. Here is the financial breakdown:

• Production Budget: $20,000,000
• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): approximately $20,000,000 to $25,000,000
• Total Estimated Investment: approximately $40,000,000 to $45,000,000
• Worldwide Gross: $61,068,496
• Net Return: approximately $16,000,000 to $21,000,000 gain (against total estimated investment)
• ROI: approximately 45% (against total estimated investment)

Why Did I Get Married Too? returned approximately $1.45 in worldwide theatrical revenue for every $1 invested when measured against total estimated production and marketing spend. The domestic share of the gross was $60,121,469 against an international share of just $947,027, a 98/2 split confirming the property's domestic-only positioning. Perry's ensemble-drama productions have historically traveled poorly to international markets, a pattern consistent across his theatrical filmography.

The commercial success was a clear theatrical win for Tyler Perry Studios and Lionsgate, demonstrating the durability of Perry's ensemble-drama franchise format. The film also performed strongly on home video and on Lifetime and BET cable programming in subsequent years, with the franchise's relationship-drama-cycle programming continuing to draw audiences across multiple distribution windows.

Why Did I Get Married Too? Production History

Tyler Perry wrote, directed, and produced the original Why Did I Get Married? (2007) based on his own 2004 stage play of the same title. The first film's commercial success (a $61,400,000 worldwide gross against a $13,000,000 budget) led directly to the 2009 development of a sequel. Perry began writing Why Did I Get Married Too? in mid-2009, with a screenplay that escalated the original ensemble's relationship crises and added the climactic courtroom and emergency-room set pieces.

Casting reassembled the original ensemble: Janet Jackson as Patricia, Tyler Perry as Terry, Jill Scott as Sheila, Tasha Smith as Angela, Sharon Leal as Dianne, Malik Yoba as Gavin, Michael Jai White as Marcus, Richard T. Jones as Mike, and Lamman Rucker as Troy. Louis Gossett Jr. and Cicely Tyson joined as featured guest cast (Cicely Tyson's scene with Janet Jackson became one of the film's defining set pieces). The supporting cast also included a notable appearance by Dwight Eubanks of The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

Principal photography ran in early 2010 at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, Georgia (using the state's film tax incentive program), and on location in the Bahamas for the annual couples-retreat sequences. The dual-location production was completed in approximately ten weeks, in line with Tyler Perry Studios' characteristically rapid production schedule.

Lionsgate scheduled the United States release for April 2, 2010, deliberately positioning the film as the studio's Easter-weekend release and capitalizing on the strong audience-base for Perry's ensemble-drama productions in the spring corridor.

Awards and Recognition

Why Did I Get Married Too? received limited industry awards recognition. The film won three NAACP Image Awards at the 2011 ceremony: Outstanding Motion Picture, Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture (Janet Jackson), and Outstanding Director in a Motion Picture (Tyler Perry). The Image Awards have historically been receptive to Perry's ensemble-drama productions, and the three-award sweep represented one of his career-best ceremony results.

The film received additional nominations at the Black Reel Awards and the BET Awards. Janet Jackson's closing-credits original song "Nothing" received a Critics' Choice Movie Award nomination for Best Song, but did not win. The film registered no Oscar, Golden Globe, or BAFTA nominations, consistent with the pattern of Perry's theatrical productions remaining largely outside mainstream awards-circuit visibility.

Critical Reception

Why Did I Get Married Too? received largely negative reviews from mainstream critics and significantly more positive reviews from Black-press and audience-focused critics. The film holds a 27% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 88 critic reviews, with a critical consensus that called it more melodramatic and overplotted than the first film. On Metacritic, the film scored 39 out of 100, indicating generally unfavorable reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an A, the highest possible grade and a striking disconnect from the mainstream critical reception.

Mainstream critics broadly objected to the screenplay's escalation into melodrama, particularly the climactic Patricia-Gavin Bahamas sequence and the third-act courtroom resolution. Variety's Andrew Barker wrote that the film "doubles down on the first film's formula without quite reaching the same emotional payoffs." The Hollywood Reporter's Frank Scheck called the sequel "overstuffed and tonally uneven, even by the standards of Tyler Perry's ensemble-drama format."

Black-press and audience-focused critics responded more positively. EBONY and Essence critics praised Janet Jackson's lead performance and the ensemble dynamic, while audience-survey data showed strong satisfaction with the franchise continuation and the relationship-drama set pieces. The A CinemaScore and the strong word-of-mouth that drove the $29.3 million opening weekend and the eventual $60 million domestic gross confirmed the property's sustained audience-base. The polarized reception combined with the commercial success cemented Why Did I Get Married Too?'s reputation as a defining entry in Perry's ensemble-drama theatrical cycle.