US box office goes crazy for rich Asians

THE big-screen homage to the lifestyles of Singapore’s rich and famous has topped the box office for a second weekend, fending off competition during an end-of-summer lull in the US.

Crazy Rich Asians added $25 million to its haul from US and Canadian theatres over the weekend, ComScore Inc. estimated. STX Entertainment’s The Happytime

Murders opened in third place, while Global Road’s A.X.L. made its debut in ninth place. The success of Crazy Rich Asians has been welcomed by Asian filmmakers seeking greater representation in Hollywood.

Other minorities, like Latinos, are also hoping the movie will open doors to mainstream success. BoxOfficePro.com was forecasting North American sales of $17.5m this past weekend.

The film, based on the novels by Kevin Kwan, dropped just 6% from the previous weekend, a rare achievement for a movie not released during a holiday.

Its success has already inspired distributor Warner Bros. to start work on a sequel with director Jon Chu. Kwan’s follow-up book China

Rich Girlfriend was No 2 on Amazon.com Inc’s charts, up 16 spots from last week.

Crazy Rich Asians also opened in Asia last week, including topping the Singapore box office, bringing its overseas sales to $84m, according to Warner Bros. – Bloomberg