Box Office Report: ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Beats ‘The Meg’

Warner Bros Pictures took the top two spots on the box office top 10 chart over the August 17-19, 2018 weekend. The studio’s groundbreaking romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians got an early jump on the weekend by opening in wide release on Wednesday, August 15. Over its first five days in theaters, the romcom rang up $34 million domestically and pushed the gigantic shark thriller, The Meg, into second place after topping the chart its first weekend in release.

Crazy Rich Asians marks the first American feature film in wide release set in contemporary times to feature an all Asian-led cast in more than 25 years. You have to go all the way back to 1993’s The Joy Luck Club to find a film with similar demographics in front of and behind the camera. The romantic comedy sits at 92% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and earned an A from audiences, according to Cinemascore.

Crazy Rich Asians will be facing stiff competition from the R-rated raunchy puppet film The Happytime Murders with Melissa McCarthy next weekend.

Box Office Top 10: August 17-19, 2018

  1. Crazy Rich Asians – $25,235,000
  2. The Meg – $21,150,000
  3. Mile 22 – $13,620,000
  4. Mission: Impossible – Fallout – $10,500,000
  5. Alpha – $10,500,000
  6. Christopher Robin – $8,862,000
  7. BlacKkKlansman – $7,000,000
  8. Slender Man – $4,965,000
  9. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation – $3,675,000
  10. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again – $3,385,000

The Crazy Rich Asians Plot: The story follows native New Yorker Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) as she accompanies her longtime boyfriend, Nick Young (Henry Golding), to his best friend’s wedding in Singapore. Excited about visiting Asia for the first time but nervous about meeting Nick’s family, Rachel is unprepared to learn that Nick has neglected to mention a few key details about his life.

It turns out that he is not only the scion of one of the country’s wealthiest families but also one of its most sought-after bachelors. Being on Nick’s arm puts a target on Rachel’s back, with jealous socialites and, worse, Nick’s own disapproving mother (Michelle Yeoh) taking aim. And it soon becomes clear that while money can’t buy love, it can definitely complicate things.

Box office: CrazyRich Asians
A scene from Warner Bros. Pictures’ and SK Global Entertainment’s contemporary romantic comedy, ‘Crazy Rich Asians.’