It’s official. Crazy Rich Asians, the first Hollywood studio film in 25 years to feature a cast entirely of Asian descent, is a hit. The film opened as No. 1 at the box office with a strong $26.5 million, buoyed by favorable reviews and strong social media presence.
On Twitter in particular, Crazy Rich Asians drew considerable buzz both before its release and during its opening weekend. Since July 1, Twitter users around the world posted more than 781,000 tweets, per Twitter spokesperson Jen Santamaria. More than 350,000 of those tweets were posted over the weekend, making it the most tweeted-about movie in August thus far.
The Hollywood film starring and portraying an Asian-American woman unsurprisingly saw the most tweets in the U.S., according to Twitter. Singapore, where Crazy Rich Asians is set, also had lots of things to say; It came in fifth among top-tweeting countries. The Philippines, Malaysia and Canada rounded out spots two, three and four.
The most retweeted tweet about the movie to date came from HuffPost Asian voices editor Kimberly Yam. The first of her eight-tweet thread about learning to embrace her identity was retweeted more than 115,000 times.
Director Jon Chu tweeted that he felt “very lucky to be a small part of this giant movement,” and indeed, Crazy Rich Asians has enjoyed endorsements from a large and diverse pool of Twitter users:
It’s only the beginning for Crazy Rich Asians, which is projected to haul in $35.3 million by its fifth day in theaters. Expect continued social media presence to play a role in this coming weekend’s numbers.
