Three weekends at the top of the box office, and over $100 million at the domestic box office and climbing. No, it's not a blockbuster action film or an animated kid's sequel, it's Crazy Rich Asians. Jon M. Chu's cinematic adaptation of Kevin Kwan's bestseller has blown away expectations and defied the odds to become one of the biggest box office stories of the year. Now, after Labor Day weekend, Crazy Rich Asians has earned another achievement to add to its banner run: Crazy Rich Asians is now the biggest romantic comedy domestically in almost a decade.
After the holiday weekend that showed continued staying power for the film at the top of the box office, Crazy Rich Asians' domestic total now sits at an estimated $117 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That's good enough to push it past Amy Schumer's Trainwreck, which made $110.2 million back in 2015. The romantic comedy genre has been a nonentity at the box office for some time, and to find a rom-com that has made more than Crazy Rich Asians domestically you have to go all the way back to The Proposal, starring Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock. That 2009 film earned $164 million at the domestic box office.
David O. Russell's 2012 Oscar nominee Silver Linings Playbook is still ahead of Crazy Rich Asians at $132.1 million, but it doesn't fall into that traditional romantic comedy mold and thus isn't included in the nine-year best achieved by Jon M. Chu's film. And given Crazy Rich Asians' performance so far and its small percentage drops week to week, I've got to think that that $132.1 million is within striking distance.
Beyond just resurrecting the romantic comedy from the ashes at the box office, Crazy Rich Asians has also now passed Girl's Trip, which made $115.2 million in 2017. That makes Crazy Rich Asians the most successful live action comedy, independent of genre, at the box office in at least two years. Even though comedies haven't performed like they used to of late, that is still very impressive, made more so by the fact that Crazy Rich Asians only cost $30 million to make. Worldwide, Crazy Rich Asians has made $136.9 million, but is early in it foreign run and still has plenty of runway left, so some folks will be enjoying some crazy riches when all is said and done.
What lessons Hollywood will learn from Crazy Rich Asians' success remains to be seen, but in what had to be one of the easiest decisions ever, the critically acclaimed film officially has a sequel in the works. Crazy Rich Asians' creative team will return to develop the sequel that will be based on Kevin Kwan's sequel novel, China Rich Girlfriend.
You can check out what will be challenging Crazy Rich Asians for the box office crown in the coming weeks in our release schedule.
