I think I realized why I (and possibly others) am anxious about #CrazyRichAsians box office take. It's because, as an Asian American, I don't think the rest of America will sit up and notice unless the results are beyond phenomenal.
Many people have made comparisons to Black Panther, which definitely made Hollywood sit up. Marvel, at least, changed its marketing materials to heavily feature Black Panther.
CRA is doing "well for its category of movie," but it feels like it's not going to be enough.
CRA is doing "well for its category of movie," but it feels like it's not going to be enough.
It's the same problem Asians and POC face in the workplace - you have to be amazing to be seen at all.
Joy Luck Club made its budget back 3 times over ($11M to $32M box office) in 1993. It still took us 25 years to get another all-Asian headlining movie. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon grossed $128M in the USA on a budget of $17M. That was 17 years ago.
Hollywood. Does. Not. Care.
Hollywood. Does. Not. Care.
That's why the box office numbers worry me, no matter how well it seems to do for its category. At the end of the day white Hollywood execs will wave it off as an average, forgettable rom-com with the additional overhead of having to find and cast Asian people and not name actors
It's not a matter of logic or money, because we would already have had more diverse movies if that were the case. It's a matter of facing down entrenched racism in one of the most explicitly racist industries around.
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