It was another crazy rich weekend for Warner Brothers’ Crazy Rich Asians as the surging rom-com handily won its second consecutive three-day at the North American box office, and did so with style.
Not only did Crazy Rich Asians best the competition with an estimated $25 million, but it dropped a mere 5.7 percent from its opening weekend a week ago. That kind of drop is virtually unheard of and sends the film on a trajectory to easy pass $100 million domestically and threaten to reach $150 million.
Of course a sequel with returning director Jon M. Chu and the core cast is already in the works.
Newcomers got stuck in the mud this weekend, headlined by STX’s raunchy puppet caper, The Happytime Murders. Bad buzz and woefully unfunny trailers drove this R-rated comedy into third place with only $10 million, the lowest opening weekend of star Melissa McCarthy’s career.
A militarized robotic dog turned out to be an even worse premise than horny puppets as Global Road’s A.X.L. limped onto the scene with $2.9 million, bad enough for ninth place. Given the film’s heavy visual effects there could be trouble for Global Road’s financials under the weight of this massive flop.
Like first place, second place went to another Warner Brothers holdover flick. The Meg finished the weekend with another $13 million and officially crossed the triple-digit mark with $105.3 million domestically to date. With little action competition to speak of, The Meg may scare up a healthy amount more before swimming off to home video.
Next week see’s Liongate’s Kin and Sony’s Searching arrive on the scene, neither of which should topple Crazy Rich Asians from its perch.
