As far as movie openings go, The Mermaid is one of the biggest of the year. In two weeks, it's grossed a ridiculous $431 million. For perspective, that's almost as much as the global gross revenue of another surprise hit, Deadpool—but The Mermaid made all that money in China alone.

The Mermaid is the latest film from Stephen Chow, the Hong Kong director behind award-winning madcap action comedies like Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle—movies that seem pretty in step with what The Mermaid offers. If you aren't familiar, think of live-action Looney Tunes–esque slapstick humor, with loads of sight gags and absurd goofballery like dancing, axe-wielding gangsters or hybrid soccer/kung fu fight scenes.

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By all accounts, The Mermaid looks like yet another masterpiece of cartoonish insanity. There's a nonsensical plot about a mermaid sent to assassinate a billionaire whose company is polluting the oceans, except they fall in love, which complicates things. There's also the mermaid's uncle, who is not a merman, but half-octopus?

Look, there's a trailer and everything.

Funny story, though: If you want to actually see The Mermaid, you might be all out of luck. According to Box Office Mojo, Sony—the film's U.S. distributor—has only opened the film in 35 theaters, where it's made about $1 million. Even in New York City, a town where even Fifty Shades of Black is still screening and just about every noteworthy movie can be found, you can find The Mermaid playing in only two theaters, and starting Friday (its second weekend Stateside) it will only be in one.

This is one of the weird realities of the movie business in 2016, an industry where international markets are more important than ever to the success of our own tentpole blockbusters, but massive hits abroad are worth nary a whisper on our shores.

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