AUSTRALIAN audiences packed cinemas out this weekend to see Crazy Rich Asians, which opened in the top position, taking in $5.2 million at the Australian box office.

The rom-com clocked the 11th highest opening weekend for a movie in Australia for 2018, but it’s the highest non-franchise, non-sequel movie. In the rom-com genre, only Mamma Mia 2’s opening weekend was higher.

The weekend’s $5.2 million box office takes Crazy Rich Asians’ so-far total to $7.3 million once advance screenings are factored in.

The movie has been hailed as a win for diversity and screen representation as the first Hollywood-produced, non-period film in 25 years to feature an all-Asian cast with actors from the US, UK, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia.

Crazy Rich Asians has been storming the box office in the US, where it has surpassed the $US100 million mark, from a production budget of $US30 million. At $US110 million in the US, it has overtaken Trainwreck, a recent rom-com success story.

At the American box office, the movie had the highest-grossing opening weekend for a rom-com in three years.

Strong word-of-mouth means Crazy Rich Asians has had remarkable staying power at the US box office, dropping only six per cent and 10 per cent week-on-week in its first two weekends. Most blockbusters drop more than 50 per cent after the first weekend.

A sequel has already been greenlit, which will be based on the second book in author Kevin Kwan’s trilogy.

The film centres on the character of Rachel Chu (Constance Wu), an Asian-American college professor who travels to Singapore with her boyfriend Nick Young (Henry Golding). She finds out Nick’s family is mega-wealthy and has to contend with Nick’s mother Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh) who thinks Rachel isn’t good enough for her son.

The highest grossing movies in Australia this year so far has been Avengers: Infinity War, Incredibles 2, Black Panther, Deadpool 2 and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

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Crazy Rich Asians is in cinemas now.

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