Update #2 (September 4): Crazy Rich Asians has done it yet again.
Constance Wu and Henry Golding’s summer hit is top of the US box office for a third consecutive weekend ($22.1 million across three days, $28.3 million including Labor Day), ahead of The Meg and Mission: Impossible – Fallout.
Crazy Rich Asians has now taken a domestic total of $117 million – which means it is the highest-grossing romantic comedy in the US from a major Hollywood studio since 2009’s The Proposal.
Searching, another Asian-led movie, is fourth in the three-day weekend figures with $6 million. Sony had originally projected the John Cho thriller to take $3 million over the weekend.
Update #1 (August 28): Crazy Rich Asians is the number 1 movie in the US for a second consecutive weekend – dipping only 6% from its opening weekend.
The romantic comedy movie took $24.8 million, taking the total domestic gross to $76.6 million. Final figures for last weekend confirm earnings of $26.5 million.
Box Office Mojo shows that it is extremely rare to see a drop so minimal for a blockbuster film at this stage of its release.
The Meg is second with $12.8 million, followed by Melissa McCarthy’s The Happytime Murders with $9.5 million.
Original story (August 20): Crazy Rich Asians has topped the US box office by securing the highest opening for a romantic comedy movie in three years.
Featuring an all-Asian principal cast and led by Constance Wu and Henry Golding, the film surpassed expectations by securing $25.2 million over the weekend, with a total of $34 million across the five days since Wednesday (via The Hollywood Reporter).
Tracking figures last month had predicted the five-day total to be around $18 million to $20 million.
But with critical acclaim (93% on Rotten Tomatoes), social media buzz, fans buying out cinemas for others, and praise from Asian-American and non-Asian celebrities (including Emma Watson and Chris Pratt), the launch this week was a huge success.
38% of the audience was Asian, compared to the 6% average. Caucasian moviegoers made up 41% of the total.
The $25.2 million three-day figure is the highest opening for a romantic comedy since Amy Schumer’s 2015 movie Trainwreck.
The cast and crew have been celebrating the result on social media, with director Jon M Chu saying: “The fact that we had never shared a communal experience of joy, laughter, and emotions at the movies like this has been an injustice. But now we have. And there’s no going back.”
The buzz and success may have also contributed to the decision to move forward the UK’s release date from November 2 to September 14.
The movie follows Asian American Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) as she goes to Singapore to meet her boyfriend Nick Young’s (Henry Golding) family, but things turn out to be more complicated than expected.
Elsewhere this weekend, Jason Statham’s shark movie The Meg took second place with $21.2 million, while Mark Wahlberg’s Mile 22 ended up with $13.6 million.
Crazy Rich Asians is out now in the US and released on September 14 in the UK.
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