Joe's College Road Trip

Joe's College Road Trip is a 2026 American road comedy film written, directed by and starring Tyler Perry. While part of the Madea franchise, it is the first of its films to be about her brother Joe. In the film, he accompanies his grandson B.J. on a college road trip.

The film was released on February 13, 2026, by Netflix.

B.J. is graduating high school and deciding where to continue his education. His friends from his private school, both white, try to peer pressure B.J. into going to Pepperdine University, laughing off the suggestion of the latter attending the HBCU Morehouse College (despite him being accepted) because "there's no need for black colleges" at this point in history. The boys decide they're going to take a road trip to California to tour the Pepperdine campus.

Brian hears this and immediately goes to his aunt Madea's house for help. His father, Joe, is also there. The two tell Brian that he needs to make B.J. listen to him, suggesting he parent B.J. as Joe parented Brian (fear tactics). Brian won't hear of it and decided to ask his neighbor, a psychologist, for advice instead. At a neighborhood gathering for the graduating students of the community, Brian's neighbor tells him there's nothing wrong with B.J. not wanting to connect to his roots and understand the struggle of the black community. Brian goes back to Madea, desperate and willing to enact on whatever she says to do. At her suggestion, Joe is going to take B.J. on the college road trip.

Instead of taking B.J.'s electric car, they take Ruby, Joe's Buick convertible. Joe and B.J. immediately set off to California. On the road, Joe gets so annoyed with B.J. that he throws the latter's phone out of the car. When B.J. says he wanted to take pictures, Joe hands him a Polaroid camera. They first stop in Tennessee on Beale Street where they meet an old friend of Joe's, Geraldine (played by Millie Jackson). Afterwards, they stop at a motel where the concierge (who also knows Joe) allows them to stay in a room as long as they leave early.

The two leave Tennessee, with Joe teaching B.J. how to drive Ruby. They make their way to a whorehouse in Texas, run by Pearl (played by Ms. Pat). Joe wants B.J. to have a good experience for his first time being intimate with a woman, and Pearl suggests Destiny, a girl roughly his age with his brand of Gen-Z ideas (such as unionizing the women in their industry). Destiny comes into B.J.'s room and realizes he's very sheltered. She reveals to B.J. she had been trafficked and just wants to leave Texas. With B.J. driving, he and Joe make their way to New Mexico with Destiny hiding in the trunk. With nothing around them for miles, their tire pops and Joe goes to get the jack from the trunk, finding Destiny.

Joe puts on music with explicit lyrics and B.J. had enough, calling Joe ignorant and ranting about the trip. While they were still in the middle of nowhere, Joe kicks B.J. and Destiny out of the car. They walk down the highway, eventually getting service on Destiny's phone for B.J. to call Brian and explain what just happened. The call drops, but Brian asks his assistant to trace the number, where he finds out that Destiny ran away from home and was trafficked by a gang.

B.J. and Destiny wind up at a motel. The next morning, Destiny is going through the Polaroid pictures and B.J. asks her why as they're "meaningless pictures." Destiny explains that Joe was taking him across the country to show him real black history - the motel they stayed at in Memphis was the Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, they passed by the creek Emmett Till was killed at in Money, Mississippi, as well as other monumental areas where black history happened. Destiny offers to take B.J. to the library to learn more, which he accepts.

Meanwhile, Brian calls Joe to find Destiny at the library because the gang is after her. Joe finds B.J. and Destiny at the library, and they try to leave town, but the gang finds them and chases them into the desert. The gang runs off after a team of police is going after the gang, with Brian leading the charge.

Brian offers to take B.J. home, but B.J. refuses, realizing he should attend Morehouse after all, and takes Joe and Destiny to Las Vegas instead.

• Tyler Perry as:
  • Joe Simmons, the brother of Madea, the father of Brian, and the grandfather of B.J.
  • Madea, a tough old lady who is the sister of Joe, the aunt of Brian, and the great-aunt of B.J.
  • Brian Simmons, the father of B.J., the son of Joe, and the nephew of Madea
• Jermaine Harris as B.J. Simmons, the son of Brian, the grandson of Joe, and the grandnephew of Madea
• Amber Reign Smith as Destiny
• Millie Jackson as Geraldine
• Bethany Anne Lind as Vikki
• Jeremy Gimenez as Garrett
• Wil Deusner as Stewart
• Ms. Pat as Pearl

Filming occurred in Las Cruces, New Mexico in January 2024,^[2] and also in Memphis, Tennessee that same month,^[3] as well as in Clarksdale, Mississippi.^[4]

Joe's College Road Trip was released on Netflix on February 13, 2026.^[5]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 42% of 12 critics' reviews are positive.^[6]

• Joe's College Road Trip at IMDb