‘Crazy Rich Asians’ still on top of North America box office
LOS ANGELES: It has been another crazy good weekend for rom-com ‘Crazy Rich Asians’, which topped the box office for a third straight weekend amid a pretty good summer for North American theatres overall, industry watchers said Sunday.
The Warner Bros. film, with its mostly Asian cast, took in an estimated US$22.2 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period, dropping just 10 per cent from the previous weekend, box office tracker Exhibitor Relations said.
The film’s estimated take jumps to US$28 million when Monday’s Labor Day holiday is included.
The adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s best-selling novel, starring Michelle Yeoh, Henry Golding and Constance Wu, follows an American economics professor as she meets her super-rich boyfriend’s family in Singapore in a story about the clash of love, family and great wealth.
‘Crazy Rich’ also helped boost the summer box office to what Hollywood Reporter called a “spectacular year-over-year recovery,” with domestic revenue expected to be up 14 per cent over last summer.
Warner Bros. meanwhile scored another hit with sharkthriller ‘The Meg’, in the No. 2 spot again with takings of US$10.5 million. Jason Statham stars as a rescue diver trying to save scientists trapped in a submarine being attacked by a huge, prehistoric shark.
In third spot was Tom Cruise adventure film ‘Mission Impossible -- Fallout’ from Paramount, which took in US$7 million. Globally, the action blockbuster has earned US$649 million, the best performance of any of the ‘MI’ films to date.
Fourth went to MGM’s new ‘Operation Finale’, at US$6 million. Oscar Isaac plays an Israeli Mossad agent who tracks Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann (Ben Kingsley) to the Buenos Aires suburb where he is living under a false name.
And in fifth was ‘Searching’ from Sony, at US$5.7 million. Written and directed by filmmaker Aneesh Chaganty, it tells the story of a KoreanAmerican man’s desperate effort to find his teenage daughter after she goes missing in California. It stars John Cho, Michelle La and Debra Messing.
Rounding out this weekend’s top 10 were:
‘Christopher Robin’ (US$5 million) ‘Alpha’ (US$4.5 million) ‘The Happytime Murders’ (US$4.4 million)
‘BlackkKlansman’ (US$4.1 million)
‘Mile 22’ (US$3.6 million)