'Crazy Rich Asians' still on top of N America box office

By
AFP
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Cast members Henry Golding and Constance Wu pose at the premiere for 'Crazy Rich Asians' in Los Angeles. Photo: Reuters/ File

It has been another crazy good weekend for rom-com "Crazy Rich Asians," which topped the box office for a third straight weekend amid a pretty good summer for North American theaters overall, industry watchers said Sunday.

The Warner Bros film, with its mostly Asian cast, took in an estimated $22.2 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period, dropping just 10 per cent from the previous weekend, box office tracker Exhibitor Relations said.

The film's estimated take jumps to $28 million when Monday´s Labor Day holiday is included.

The adaptation of Kevin Kwan´s best-selling novel, starring Michelle Yeoh, Henry Golding and Constance Wu, follows an American economics professor as she meets her super-rich boyfriend´s family in Singapore in a story about the clash of love, family and great wealth.

"Crazy Rich" also helped boost the summer box office to what Hollywood Reporter called a "spectacular year-over-year recovery," with domestic revenue expected to be up 14 percent over last summer.

Warner Bros meanwhile scored another hit with shark-thriller "The Meg," in the No 2 spot again with takings of $10.5 million. Jason Statham stars as a rescue diver trying to save scientists trapped in a submarine being attacked by a huge, prehistoric shark.

In third spot was Tom Cruise adventure film "Mission Impossible — Fallout" from Paramount, which took in $7 million. Globally, the action blockbuster has earned $649 million, the best performance of any of the "MI" films to date.

Fourth went to MGM´s new "Operation Finale," at $6 million. Oscar Isaac plays an Israeli Mossad agent who tracks Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann (Ben Kingsley) to the Buenos Aires suburb where he is living under a false name.

And in fifth was "Searching" from Sony, at $5.7 million. Written and directed by filmmaker Aneesh Chaganty, it tells the story of a Korean-American man´s desperate effort to find his teenage daughter after she goes missing in California. It stars John Cho, Michelle La and Debra Messing.