Coverage: “Crazy Rich Asians” exceeds box office expectations

The Warner Bros. romantic comedy “Crazy Rich Asians” opened to an estimated $25.2 million at the domestic box office this weekend and made $34 million over its five-day opening, which exceeded industry expectations that had it bringing in closer to $25 million.

Frank Pallotta of CNNMoney.com had the news:

“Crazy Rich Asians” is a watershed moment for on-screen representation. It is the first major studio film since “The Joy Luck Club” 25 years ago to feature a predominately Asian cast.

The film has had an immense amount of media buzz and created a movement on social media with the #GoldOpen hashtag that was created to drum up attention and draw a big box office.

The film, which is based on the novel of the same name by Kevin Kwan, tells the story of a college professor who meets her boyfriend’s wealthy family in Singapore.

The strong opening for “Crazy Rich Asians” is also a big moment for romantic comedies. It was the first time that a rom-com has topped the box office since June of 2014. The genre, which was once one of the Hollywood’s most reliable, now thrive on Netflix rather than the cineplex.

Brooks Barnes of the New York Times reported that the movie could lead to move diversity from Hollywood:

“This shows — once again, with emphasis — that true diversity matters,” Brad Simpson, a “Crazy Rich Asians” producer, wrote in an email on Sunday. “Audiences are tired of seeing the same stories with the same characters. And we have to give people a reason to get off their couch or devices. We have to give them something different.”

“Crazy Rich Asians,” starring Constance Wu and Henry Golding in a love story complicated by dazzling wealth (his) and a treacherous mother (his), is the first Hollywood studio movie in 25 years to have an all-Asian cast. The last one was “The Joy Luck Club,” which Disney released in 1993. As a result, “Crazy Rich Asians” was seen as a watershed moment by many Asian-Americans, echoing the emotional manner in which African-Americans responded in February to “Black Panther,” which was rooted in black culture.

About 38 percent of ticket buyers for “Crazy Rich Asians” were Asian, according to Jeff Goldstein, Warner’s president of domestic distribution. Asian moviegoers typically make up less than 10 percent of the opening-weekend audience for a film. About 68 percent of the audience was female.

Sonaiya Kelley of the Baltimore Sun pointed out the movie’s broad appeal to consumers:

The movie appeals to everyone, he said: “I think it just looks like fun. The people are handsome and pretty and the locations are exotic. It looks like a nice diversion from life.”

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.”

It’s this universal story that appeals to audiences outside of the Asian community, Yang says.