Crazy Rich Asians: Before its general release, expectations soar

Michelle Yeoh, Henry Golding and Constance Wu in 'Crazy Rich Asians.'

EXPECTATIONS ARE HIGH that Crazy Rich Asians will surpass box-office projections during the 5-day weekend that starts on the film's Aug. 15 general release.

The Aug. 8 sneak previews of the movie based on Kevin Kwan's best-seller, earned around $500,000, a huge step towards to the expected $20 million the film is expected to make that first weekend. A $20 million launch, while not reaching the blockbuster heights of Black Panther or Titanic, would go a long way to ensuring the box-office success of a film that cost only $30 million to make.

As the first reviews come in, CRA is delivering on several fronts, according to Rotten Tomatoes, a movie review aggregator website, where it earned an almost unheard of 100 percent favorable rating from film critics.

Rotten Tomatoes writes:

"Crazy Rich Asians has more baggage and built-in expectations than just about any this (film) year (and yes, we’re including Infinity War). CRA has to satisfy fans of Kevin Kwan’s insanely popular book series. CRA has to save the rom-com, a genre which has been flailing on the big screen – if not on Netflix – for quite some time now. And CRA arrives with a huge burden of representation: It is the first wide release with an Asian-American lead cast since 1993’s The Joy Luck Club. Hopes, expectations, and even fears, are high – fairly or otherwise.

"If early reviews are anything to go by, Crazy Rich Asians is set to deliver on a number of fronts. The embargo broke this Wednesday, a week out from the movie’s release on August 15, and with 19 reviews counted, it is sitting at 100% on the Tomatometer. Critics are talking breathlessly about the extravagance of Jon M. Chu’s film – costumes! beaches! wealthy parties! – and incisively about the film’s representational burden. But most of all they’re saying that the movie, which stars Fresh Off the Boatbreakout star Constance Wu, Michelle Yeoh, “it” guy Henry Golding, and features Ocean’s 8 scene-stealer Awkwafina, is an A-plus example of old-school unironic rom-coms."

On top of all that, CRA is a romantic comedy, a genre that has suffered among a generation of a movie-going public who have been numbed by movies featuring special effects, computer graphics and muscle-bound heroes in Spandex.

“Ultimately, the film delivers as a blockbuster romantic comedy: It’s joyous, decadent, and yes, extremely predictable," writes Anne Cohen for Refinery29. "But seeing new characters inhabit and thrive within a story we’ve seen countless times before is a major achievement in itself.” 

Directed by Jon M. Chu, CRA follows Asian American Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) as she meets the crazy rich family of her boyfriend Nick Young (Henry Golding) in a comedy of manners and cultural clashes. The movie also features Michelle Yeoh, Gemma Chan, Awkwafina, Chris Pang, Ken Jeong, Jimmy Yang, Nick Santos, Sonoya Mizuno and Lisa Lu among others.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Watch for the movie review in the cocming days.
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