"Hit filmmaker" continues to precede the name "Tyler Perry" anytime someone writes about the Atlanta movie mogul, who rode his "Madea" character to box-office gold last week as his latest film, "I Can Do Bad All By Myself," was tops at the box office, making more than $24 million.

This follows his other film this year, "Madea Goes to Jail," which also opened on top. He's had six No. 1 films overall.

Perry has many critics who pan his films, complaining that they are all the same, the storytelling comes up short and character development is weak. Some critics say it's wrong for him as a man to keep playing a large and loud grandmother. But the true success of Perry boils down to two five-letter words: M-O-N-E-Y and J-E-S-U-S.

For years, Hollywood has treated people of faith more like lepers, refusing to acknowledge that Christians and others who identify themselves as religious actually go to movies. We always have seen the blockbusters filled with elaborate highway car crashes, flicks with young starlets walking around for nearly two hours in tightly fitting clothes, and movie after movie with enough cussing to make Redd Foxx and Moms Mabley scream, "Enough!"

Their mantra is always, "Show me the money!" Every movie with Christ at the center won't be as big as Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" ($370 million U.S., $611 million worldwide), but Perry's movies continue to bring in the people and the bucks, and Hollywood had better pay attention.

What the critics hate about Tyler Perry's films is what I appreciate: a willingness to tell stories about love, redemption, family and God and do so in an entertaining way. He is an unapologetic Christian.

When we look at the destruction going on all around us — people committing suicide because of financial strains, mounting job losses, folks screaming and yelling at health care town hall meetings — it's gratifying to watch a movie that speaks to the goodness in people, no matter how messed up they are.

Some say a romantic comedy, horror flick or thriller is a way to escape life. But hope and inspiration also should be available at the movie theater.

"I Can Do Bad All By Myself" is a simple story: Three kids are facing going to a foster home unless their aunt (Taraji Henson) takes them in. But she's so screwed up it's unbelievable. She is committing adultery by sleeping with a married man, is a drunk, has no sense of family, and is more concerned about singing at a bar every night than the welfare of her dead sister's children.

There are so many emotional moments in the movie (a lot of my Facebook and Twitter friends admitted to crying a lot), but it's the central focus of faith that is at the heart of the film. And the lesson for so many of us facing the difficulties of life is that there is a higher source that we can depend on in times of need.

Perry's insistence on professing his faith publicly is truly the root of his success. Before hitting the big screen, he was a hit with his traveling plays, often reaching thousands of people in cities across the country, and a ton of them were churchgoing folks, especially women.

At one time, he had a development deal with ABC, but when executives objected to the constant references to God, he walked away, saying he wouldn't compromise his principles for a TV show. (He now has two hit TV shows on TBS, "House of Payne" and "Meet the Browns," and both mention God, Jesus and the Bible all the time.)

"These stars can make all the references in the world to Kabbalah or Scientology, and that's just fine," he told USA Today last year. "But mention Jesus Christ, and (studios) don't want to deal with you."

He has transferred that loyalty to the big screen, and Hollywood has taken notice. Later this fall, "Pastor Brown" will be released. It's the tale of a woman who used to be a stripper but has returned to take over the church her dad founded, and a lot of folks aren't happy about that.

Anyone will tell you that you can't just throw together a gospel choir on the big screen, yell "God! God! God!" and expect the faithful to show up. There are many video rental shelves filled with bad movies churned out by Hollywood, which hoped people of faith would overlook the bad filmmaking. Churchgoing folks may be faithful, but they aren't stupid.

Hollywood has long made fun of religious people, portraying pastors as crazy or deranged. Yet this new generation of filmmakers, with the Internet and so many ways to reach fans, isn't as willing to compromise its principles in order to get movie deals.

Jesus once said, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few." Maybe we just need to keep praying for Hollywood so it'll wake up and realize there is a huge field that can be cultivated, if only it works it.

Roland S. Martin is an award-winning CNN analyst and the author of the forthcoming book "The First: President Barack Obama's Road to the White House as originally reported by Roland S. Martin." Please visit his Web site at www.RolandSMartin.com. To find out more about Roland S. Martin and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.