Warner Bros. is having a wild week at the box office.
Days after reviving the shark movie subgenre at the B.O. with The Meg (four-day is near $50M), Warner Bros. is opening Crazy Rich Asians tomorrow, a watershed moment which reps the first Asian American movie made by a major studio since Disney’s 1993 Joy Luck Club. That movie reached a wide release of 600 theaters at the time and ended its domestic run at $32.9M. Crazy Rich Asians is bound to beat Joy Luck Club‘s cume in a matter of days.
While tracking sees the Jon M. Chu-directed romance at $26M over five days, some believe that $30M isn’t out of the question at 3,303 locations (that count will go up on Friday), with women around 75% apt to drive business for this feature based on the bestselling book by Kevin Kwan. Already Fandango presales show that Crazy Rich Asians is outselling Universal’s all-femme hit from last summer, Girls Trip at the same point prior to each pic’s opening. Girls Trip debuted to $31.2M and churned a 3.68 multiple for a final stateside of $115.1M. Current Rotten Tomatoes score off 51 reviews is 96% fresh, and word is that Crazy Rich Asians could even topple Meg for the No. 1 spot, whose second weekend is being estimated at around $20M, -55%.
According to a Fandango survey of more than 1,000 moviegoers planning to see Crazy Rich Asians, 95% say the film’s cast including Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Akwafina, Michelle Yeoh, Ken Jeong and more as a primary factor in wanting to see the movie. Another 93% are looking forward to fresh fare at the multiplex after a summer heavy with superhero pics, while 83% are excited by the film’s setting in Singapore.
“The advance ticket sales for Crazy Rich Asians are among the best we’ve seen for any comedy this summer,” says Fandango Managing Editor Erik Davis. “It’s the kind of joyful, celebratory romance that lends itself to repeat viewings, and we expect it to play well through the end of the season.”
Crazy Rich Asians won’t hold previews tonight, but shows kick off as early as 11am in most locations tomorrow. Last Wednesday, Warner Bros. sold out most of their 354 Crazy Rich Asians sneak previews, earning $450K-$500K, which repped a hearty theater average of $1,3K. A video of the cast surprising fans at AMC’s Century City sneak peek last week:
Social Media entertainment analyst, RelishMix reports that there’s tremendous buzz for Crazy Rich Asians heading into the weekend, “For those who have read the book from the beloved series, they feel like the trailer and other materials indicate the movie makers got it right. Even for those who didn’t read the book, they like the cast, the exotic locations and the comedy coming out of the materials. There is even a contingent of fans who feel like the movie is touching a nerve when it comes to friction between in-laws — whether that nerve is a little raw, or funny to them, Fans are calling out the relationship between Fresh Off The Boat’s Constance Wu and Michelle Yeoh.”
RelishMix reports a great social media universe for the film near 116M, made up of 34.7M Facebook Fans, 37M Facebook video views, 8.6M Twitter followers, 31M YouTube views and 4.6M Instagram followers. The romance has a strong video viral rate of 22:1 which bests the 15:1 average, plus the daily average YouTube views are scoring an immense 32.7K, which is way ahead of the genre’s usual 6.2K views/a day.
The cast from Constance Wu to Awkwafina are continually sharing materials and experiences from their promotional tour. RelishMix reports that of those in the cast, Filipino talk show star Kris Aquino with 7M across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, has the biggest social media following. Aquino is the daughter of royalty in her native Philippines, and IMDB reports she’s the highest paid talk show in that country. She wore an immense collection of jewelry to the Crazy premiere, which has received a lot of great social engagement. After Aquino, Shadowhunters co-star Harry Shum, Jr. counts 3.9M followers followed by Hangover star and stand-up comedian Ken Jeong at 1.8M.
Opening on Friday is STX’s Mile 22 which looks to do in the high teens at 3,510 locations with previews starting Thursday at 7PM. The pic reps the fourth collaboration between director Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg. Mile 22 will play in Imax and other premium large formats including XD, Dolby Vision, RPX and Marcus Super Screens. Wahlberg plays James “Jimmy” Silva, an operative of the CIA’s most highly prized and least-understood unit. Aided by a top-secret tactical command team, Silva must retrieve and transport an asset who holds life-threatening information to Mile 22 for extraction before the enemy closes in.
Sony also has their Ice Age adventure Alpha from Albert Hughes. It is tracking low with a $6M-$8M opening at 2,500 theaters.
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