Pop Culture
Mara Brock Akil Says She’ll Need $50 Million Budget for ‘Girlfriends’ Movie
The showrunner admitted that she “can’t keep knocking on every door” to generate the movie budget
ByJaelani Turner-Williams
July 4, 2026
Mara Brock Akil, creator and showrunner of Girlfriends, is looking for a production studio to cough up $50 million for a movie adaptation of the hit sitcom
The legendary screenwriter, who recently published her debut novel, The Revelation of Dionne Daphne, spoke about the budget for the potential Girlfriends film on the Thursday (July 2) episode of podcast Question Everything
“I need the money that I need and if it’s not going to be there, I can’t keep knocking on every door,” Akil said around the 40-minute mark of the video below. “I have to sort of move on. But when that money comes, or a new idea comes for a lesser amount, if I can’t do it right, why am I doing it?”
While Akil has the storyline to reunite Girlfriendscharacters Joan, Toni, Lynn and Maya, she wants to “do this right.”
“And so right now I’m looking for $50 million to tell the story that I’d like to tell, set in Los Angeles, for the entire cast to come back,” she continued. “They want to come back. They’re open to it. But we all want the right value.”
Starring Tracee Ellis Ross, Jill Marie Jones, Persia White and Golden Brooks, Girlfriends ran for eight seasons from 2000 to 2007
Last year, the main cast reunited as stars in a commercial for Ross’ Pattern Beauty. Six years before that, Jones, White and Brooks guest-starred on an episode of Black-ish, which Ross starred in as Dr. Rainbow Johnson
Following Girlfriends, Akil created The Game, Being Mary Jane, Love Is and Forever
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