‘Crazy Rich Asians’ dominates box office, makes representation history
Warner Bros.’ highly anticipated “Crazy Rich Asians” dominated the box office this weekend, making history for Asian-American representation and becoming the highest-opening romantic comedy since 2015’s “Trainwreck.”
The first contemporary Englishlanguage Hollywood film with an all-Asian cast since “The Joy Luck Club” 25 years ago, “Crazy Rich Asians” grossed $25.2 million over the weekend and a cumulative $34 million since its opening Wednesday, according to figures from measurement firm ComScore. Analysts predicted that the film would collect $29 million through Sunday.
“It’s a well-made movie, and it’s tapped into the zeitgeist culturally as an important touchstone across the domestic marketplace,” said Jeff Goldstein, the studio’s distribution chief.
According to Goldstein, 38 percent of audience members over the weekend were Asian, 41 percent were white, 11 percent were Latino and 6 percent were black. “We started on Wednesday with a 44 percent share for the Asian audience,” he said, which represents a rare trend. “The shift illustrates the broadening of the movie, which will continue as time progresses.”
For author and CNN contributor Jeff Yang, whose son Hudson stars on the ABC sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat,” the film marks a sea change for Asian-American representation in mainstream culture.
“Certainly for Asian-American audiences, this is a signal moment for us,” he said. “It really is the first time that we’ve seen in a contemporary setting an all-Asian cast with an Asian-American protagonist light up the screen. And the storyline itself, I’ve likened it as the first real Asian-American Disney princess story. At its core, this is a story about an immigrant Asian-American woman who finds herself essentially in a fantasy land from which she couldn’t possibly have imagined coming herself.”
The romantic comedy, which cost $30 million to produce, is based on the bestselling novel by Kevin Kwan about a Chinese American woman who learns her boyfriend is from one of Singapore’s wealthiest families. Starring Constance Wu, “Crazy Rich Asians” was shot in Malaysia and Singapore and will be released in international markets, including most Asian countries, in the coming weeks.
According to a July study by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, of the top 100 films of 2017, only 4.8 percent featured a character of Asian descent with a speaking role. With the success of this film and others like “Black Panther,” “Get Out” and “Girls Trip,” studios may soon be looking to change that.
“Crazy Rich Asians” earned positive reviews from audiences and critics, with an A rating on CinemaScore and a 92 percent fresh rating from review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.
Now in its second week, the studio’s “The Meg” dropped one spot to No. 2, earning $21.1 million over the weekend for a cumulative $83.7 million.
STX Entertainment’s “Mile 22” debuted at No. 3 with $13.6 million.
Sony’s “Alpha” opened at No. 4 and tied with Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible — Fallout,” which added $10.5 million in its fourth weekend, for a cumulative $180.7 million.
In limited release, Sony Pictures Classics opened “The Wife” with $111,137 in four theaters for a solid per-screen average of $27,784. It earned a 93 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Roadside Attractions’ “Juliet Naked” opened in four theaters with $60,922, a per-screen average of $15,230.