By Jake Coyle, Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --The opening weekend for "Crazy Rich Asians" was historic. Its second weekend was even more impressive.
The romantic comedy sensation slid just 6 percent from its chart-topping debut to again lead the box office with $25 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. Almost as many people turned out over the weekend for "Crazy Rich Asians" as they did for its opening Friday-to-Sunday bow — an unheard of hold for a non-holiday release. Drops of close to 50 percent are common for wide releases.
But propelled by enthusiastic reviews and an eagerness for a major Hollywood film led by Asian stars, "Crazy Rich Asians" is showing almost unprecedented legs. After opening last weekend with $35.3 million from Wednesday to Sunday and $26.5 million over the weekend, the Warner Bros. release — the first Hollywood studio movie in 25 years with an all-Asian cast — has already grossed $76.8 million.
The adaptation of Kevin Kwan's bestselling novel, starring Constance Wu and Henry Golding, was helped by weak competition. STX Entertainment's critically slammed R-rated puppet caper "The Happytime Murders" debuted with $10.1 million, a career-low wide release for star Melissa McCarthy. The robot-dog fantasy "A.X.L.," from the beleaguered Global Road Entertainment, flopped with $2.9 million.
But the talk of the weekend was the sustained success of "Crazy Rich Asians," which grossed approximately the same from one Saturday to the next.
"I've been telling my team that Big Foot sightings are more common than zero percent Saturday drops," said Jeff Goldstein, distribution chief for Warner Bros.
Goldstein noted that after a 44 percent Asian-American audience over opening weekend, that percentage fell to 27 percent on the second weekend while Caucasian and Hispanic ticket buyers grew. "The audience is broadening," he said.
The remarkable hold left many in Hollywood searching for comparisons. While such slim drops or second-week increases regularly happen over holiday weekends , you have to go back to the likes of "The Sixth Sense" (-3.4 percent in August 1999) and "The Fugitive" (-5.6 percent in August 1993) to find something similar.
There are a few other stray examples of movies that held so well without adding substantially more theaters like "Brother Bear," ''Puss in Boots" and "Mother's Day," but that's about it. Even "The Help," which also opened mid-August, slid 23.1 percent in 2011 on its way to $169.7 million domestically and four Oscar nominations including best picture — a path that's not out of the question for "Crazy Rich Asians."
"There's no greater indicator of the enthusiasm of an audience than a minimal drop in a second weekend," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore. "This isn't the product of opening-weekend hype. This is the product of a great movie resonating very strongly with all audiences. The movie has become a cultural phenomenon."
"Crazy Rich Asians" also expanded internationally, though with a more muted effect. It grossed an estimated $6 million in 18 markets, including $1.8 million on 105 screens in Singapore, where much of the movie is set. "Crazy Rich Asians" hasn't yet been granted a release in China, where Disney's "Ant-Man and the Wasp" opened over the weekend and collected $68 million, pushing its global gross to $544.1 million.
"The Happytime Murders," which cost approximately $40 million to make, came into the weekend with some of the worst reviews of the year (22 percent "fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes) despite the pedigree of the Jim Henson Company. Brian Henson, the chairman of the company and son of Jim Henson, directed the raunchy Los Angeles detective tale, a kind of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" for puppets. It's the second straight disappointment for STX, which has also seen its Mark Wahlberg thriller "Mile 22" underperform. With $6 million in its second week, it has been thoroughly trounced by "Crazy Rich Asians,"
In limited release, the low-budget John Cho-starring thriller "Searching" landed a $28,000 per-screen average with $250,000 in nine theaters.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Crazy Rich Asians," $25 million ($6 million international).
2. "The Meg," $13 million ($32.7 million international).
3. "The Happytime Murders," $10 million ($1.2 million international).
4. "Mission: Impossible — Fallout," $8 million ($13 million international).
5. "Christopher Robin," $6.3 million ($5.9 million international).
6. "Mile 22," $6 million ($5.7 million international).
7. "Alpha," $5.6 million ($6.7 million international).
8. "BlacKkKlansman," $5.3 million ($5.6 million international).
9. "A.X.L.," $2.9 million.
10. "Slender Man," $2.8 million ($5.8 million international).
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada), according to comScore:
1. "Ant-Man and the Wasp," $71.2 million.
2. "The Meg," $32.7 million.
3. "Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation," $17.8 million.
4. "Big Brother," $13.6 million.
5. "Mission: Impossible — Fallout," $13 million.
6. "Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again," $11.8 million.
7. "The Equalizer 2," $11 million.
8. "Incredibles 2," $7.9 million.
9. "The Island," $6.9 million.
10. "Go Brother!" $6.9 million.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More