Warner Bros.’ “Crazy Rich Asians” has taken off at the box office, opening Wednesday on 3,303 screens and earning $5 million.
That total includes preview screenings that were held on 350 screens last week, many of which were reportedly sold out. The film is expected to post a five-day opening of $27 million, with some analysts telling TheWrap that the final figure could be pushed over $30 million. If so, it would have the highest opening for a romantic comedy since the $31 million three-day opening of “Trainwreck” in 2015.
Directed by Jon M. Chu, “Crazy Rich Asians” follows an NYU professor named Rachel Chu (Constance Wu), who is invited by her boyfriend Nick (Henry Golding) to meet his family in Singapore during his cousin’s wedding. What Nick conveniently leaves out is that he is the heir to the biggest fortune in Singapore and one of its most eligible bachelors. With little preparation, Rachel must prepare to face a world she’s never been in, and worse, the attempts by Nick’s mother Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh) to split them apart.
Based on Kevin Kwan’s best-selling novel of the same name, the film also stars Awkwafina, Ken Jeong, Gemma Chan and Jimmy O. Yang. It currently has a 93 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and a reported production budget of $30 million. Audiences gave the film rave reviews in CinemaScore polls, with all major quadrants giving the film an A.