The holiday drama starring Fantasia Barrino Taylor and Tank puts Shirley Caesar, CeCe Winans and the Clark Sisters in front of a global streaming audience.
Fantasia Barrino Taylor as Rebecca in Tyler Perry’s The Gospel of Christmas. (Credit: Jay Johnson/Perry Well Films 2/Netflix)
Gospel music's legends have a new audience. Tyler Perry's The Gospel of Christmas, a holiday drama built around some of the genre's most celebrated voices, climbed to No. 1 on Netflix's U.S. movie chart Friday, two days after it began streaming on Nov. 11.
Perry thanked viewers on X. "I'm so humbled by every one of you!! Thank you so much," he wrote.
The film stars Fantasia Barrino Taylor and R&B singer Durrell "Tank" Babbs as Rebecca and Isaac, a married couple who inherit his family's church in a troubled New York neighborhood. Netflix describes Isaac as a pastor battling doubt, temptation and a sinister adversary as he fights to save his church, his family and his community in time for Christmas.
Tank as Isaac in Tyler Perry’s The Gospel of Christmas. (Credit: Jay Johnson/Netflix)
Perry surrounded his leads with gospel royalty, including Shirley Caesar, CeCe Winans, Yolanda Adams, Fred Hammond, the Clark Sisters, Smokie Norful, Hezekiah Walker, Vanessa Bell Armstrong and Jekalyn Carr. Kirk Franklin produced the music.
The chart run puts those voices before viewers who may have never heard them sing. Perry expected as much.
"If you know gospel, you know these people, and if you don't know gospel, just wait until you see this movie," he told Netflix's Tudum.
The film is Perry's third holiday movie, following A Madea Christmas in 2013 and Finding Joy in 2025. Its streaming debut came days after a star-studded Atlanta premiere at the Tabernacle, which EEW Magazine Online covered.
Netflix has not released viewership totals for the film. Tyler Perry's The Gospel of Christmas is streaming now on Netflix.