Coming off a big opening, the Weinstein Company is aggressively expanding director Wong Kar-wai's martial arts action film “The Grandmaster” this weekend.
It will be in 749 theaters starting Friday, after opening in seven theaters last weekend. It brought in $132,259 for a $18,894 average — the highest of any film in release for that frame.
“The Grandmaster” is based on the life of martial-arts master Ip Man (played by Tony Leung Chiu Wai), best known in America as the man who trained Bruce Lee. In China, he’s seen as a national hero for helping to unite the Northern and Southern Chinese schools of martial arts.
The film opened in January in China and has taken in $45 million.
The version showing in the U.S. is 108 minutes, considerably shorter than the “Chinese cut,” which was 130 minutes and the 123-minute version that debuted at Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Pantelion and Lionsgate are rolling out the Spanish-language family comedy “Instructions Not Included” in 347 theaters.
The film is written, produced, directed by and stars popular Mexican comic Eugenio Derbez.
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He plays an Acapulco playboy who heads to L.A. to search for a former fling who has left a baby on his doorstep. He takes the child with him and they don’t find the mother, but he finds a new life as a Hollywood stuntman, and little Maggie becomes his on-set coach.
The marketing campaign primarily targets Hispanic adults aged 18-49 and kicked off in July, when Derbez received a lifetime achievement award on “Premios Juventud,” an annual awards show on the Univision network that drew 10 million viewers. Since then he’s made numerous guest appearances on network’s shows.
Loreto Peralta, Jessica Lindsey and Alessandra Rosaldo co-star in the PG-13-rated comedy.
The Film Arcade is rolling out the comedy-drama “Afternoon Delight” in two theaters, one in New York and one in Los Angeles.
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Written and directed by Jim Soloway, it tells the tale of a frustrated stay-at-home mom (Kathryn Hahn), who adopts a stripper (Juno Temple) as an in-house nanny. Josh Radnor and Jane Lynch co-star. It’s rated R.
Soloway won the director’s award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival for “Afternoon Delight,” which is her feature directing debut. She was a writer and producer for TV’s “Six Feet Under” and “The United States of Tara."