Winning the box office crown with $25 million may not be a record breaker, but Warner Bros.’s Crazy Rich Asians has quietly just made a loud statement.
The total marks just a six percent drop for the romantic comedy, which boasts the first entirely Asian top-of-the-marquee cast for a major Hollywood movie in 25 years, from its opening weekend victory. In the words of The Hollywood Reporter, that $25 million represents “one of the best holds in modern history for a wide release summer title.”
It means that Crazy Rich Asians has become the type of pop culture phenomenon which audiences flock to see to be part of a larger conversation. Already at $76.8 million domestically after its first ten days, the film is likely to become the first romantic comedy to pass the $100 million mark in three years. Comedies have been in a serious slump of late.
But having a winner means there must be losers in the box office game. Melissa McCarthy’s R-rated puppet comedy, The Happytime Murders, opened in third place with just $10 million, marking a career low for the comedienne in a film in which she is the lead.
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