Can 'Crazy Rich Asians' Win the Weekend?
by EG
Jon Chu's romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians looks well positioned to take the top spot at the box office this weekend, but it will have some formidable competition. Read on for predictions about how all this week's new movies will do at the box office.
Forget about the dog days of August at the box office this year.
Following the better-than-expected debut of The Meg last weekend, fellow Warner Bros. film Crazy Rich Asians is now tracking to post a five-day debut of $26 million-plus, according to the latest prerelease surveys. That's up from $20 million several weeks ago.
Directed by Jon M. Chu, Crazy Rich Asians opens everywhere Wednesday following Tuesday night previews. On Friday, STXfilms and Pete Berg's male-fueled Mile 22, starring Mark Wahlberg, and Studio 8's prehistoric adventure-drama Alpha, directed by Albert Hughes and starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, enter the fray.
Many box-office observers believe that Crazy Rich Asians will outperform tracking and do even more crazy-great business. Based on Kevin Kwan's best-selling 2013 novel of the same name, the modestly budgeted $30 million film is the first Hollywood studio movie since The Joy Luck Club 25 years ago to feature an all-Westernized Asian cast. On Aug. 9, Warners hosted paid sneaks in more than 350 theaters across the country to further increase the profile of Crazy Rich Asians.
“There are [Asian-centric] projects in development right now, but they’re not going to greenlight these things unless our movie does well. If our movie does well, four projects will go into production or at least get greenlighted within three weeks. If it doesn’t, they’re going to be in unknown states, and that’s scary,” says Jon M. Chu (second from right) with (from left) Constance Wu, Henry Golding and Michelle Yeoh. They were photographed June 17 in Bel Air.
Chu's rom-com — currently sporting a 98 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes and favorable reviews — follows American Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) as she accompanies her longtime boyfriend Nick Young (Henry Golding) to his best friend’s wedding in Singapore. As Rachel visits Nick's hometown for the first time, she quickly learns that her boyfriend is not only from one of the richest families in Asia, but also is one of its most eligible bachelors, putting a target on her back from jealous socialites as well as Nick's formidable mother, Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh). Awkwafina, Ken Jeong, Gemma Chan and Jimmy O. Yang also star.
The past several years have seen many comedies, including rom-coms, wilt at the box office. The last romantic comedy to debut to $20 million or more was in July 2015, when Amy Schumer's raunchy, R-rated Trainwreck opened to $30.1 million. The next best showing in the time since was 2016's How to Be Single ($17.9 million), followed by Overboard earlier this year ($14.7 million).
On Tuesday afternoon, Fandango announced that Crazy Rich Asians is outpacing Universal's Girls Trip (2017) in terms of advance ticket sales. The Malcolm D. Lee pic is one of the few comedies to prosper in recent times after opening to $31.2 million last summer.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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