Elsewhere, 'Operation Finale' and 'Searching' open to solid numbers, while James Franco's ensemble sci-pic action pic 'Kin' bombs; 'Mission: Impossible – Fallout' tops overseas with $77.3 million debut.
Warner Bros.' Crazy Rich Asians is dominating the Labor Day box-office picnic, earning an estimated $22.2 million for the three-day weekend for a near-record four-day holiday gross of $27 million-plus.
To boot, the Jon M. Chu-directed rom-com is dancing past the $100 million mark in its third weekend as it targets the best domestic gross for a comedy in at least two years. It also boasts the top Labor Day showing in more than a decade. In 2007, Halloween opened to $30.6 million over the long weekend, while The Sixth Sense (1999) is the No. 2 Labor Day pic with $29.3 million, not adjusted for inflation.
The weekend isn't over and Crazy Rich Asians could come in ahead of Sunday estimates.
The summer box office made a spectacular year-over-year recovery. While final numbers won't be tallied until Tuesday, comScore is predicting an uptick of at least 14 percent. Domestic revenue for the May 4-Sept. 3 corridor is expected to come in at $4.39 billion, the fifth-best of all time. And it would be almost a record summer if including the first week of Avengers: Infinity War, which unfurled on April 27 (2013 remains the record-holder with $4.731 billion).
Crazy Rich Asians fell a scant 11 percent for the weekend proper. Overseas, the rom-com opened to a stellar $5.4 million in Australia for an early foreign tally of $19.9 million and global total of more than $130 million through Monday.
Warners also took the No. 2 spot with The Meg, now in its fourth weekend. The hit shark pic earned another $10.5 million for the three days for a projected four-day gross of $12 million, and domestic total of $122 million through Monday. Overseas, it swam to another $17.7 million for a foreign total of $342.3 million through Sunday and $462 million worldwide.
Paramount and Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible — Fallout, which also contributed to a strong August, won the weekend overseas with $89.1 million — including $77.3 from China, where it posted a franchise-best Friday-Sunday debut. The sixth installment also stayed high up on the domestic chart, placing No. 4 with an estimated four-day gross of $8.8 million, pushing it past the $200 million mark domestically. Fallout is widely expected to finish its run with more than $700 million globally, a franchise-best (to date, it has earned $649 million).
A pair of Disney titles are also making news. Pixar's Incredibles 2 became the first animated pic in history to cross the $600 million mark in North America, not adjusted for inflation, for a worldwide tally of $1.163 billion. And Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp approached the $600 million worldwide — the first Ant-Man topped out at $519.3 million — after opening its final foreign market, Japan, for a global total of $594.9 million.
Among new Labor Day offerings, MGM's Nazi war-criminal drama Operation Finale is faring the best, earning $6 million for the three days and a projected $7.8 million for the four days. Playing in 1,818 theaters, the drama is expected to post a pleasing six-day debut of $10 million after opening Wednesday.
Operation Finale stars Oscar Isaac as a Mossad agent who tracks down Adolf Eichmann (Ben Kingsley), one of the infamous architects of the Holocaust. Chris Weitz (About a Boy) directed.
The new thriller Searching, about a Korean-American family living in the San Francisco Bay Area, is expanding nationwide into 1,207 theaters after opening in select cinemas last weekend to strong numbers.
Buoyed by support from Chu and other Crazy Rich Asian stars, including Henry Golding — as well as Asian-American groups — Searching is coming in ahead of expectations with a projected $5.7 million for the three days and $7.5 million for the four days from 1,207 theaters.
Searching, written and helmed by Asian-American filmmaker Aneesh Chaganty in his feature directorial debut, tells the story of a 16-year-old girl who goes missing and her father's effort to find her. John Cho, Michelle La, Debra Messing, Sara Sohn, Joseph Lee and Ranc Sarabia star.
Lionsgate's sci-fi action pic Kin, whose ensemble cast includes James Franco, isn't looking so lucky, earning just $3 million for the three days and an estimated $3.7 million for the long weekend from 2,141 theaters. Franco stars opposite Jack Reynor, Miles Truitt, Zoe Kravitz, Dennis Quaid and Carrie Coon.
Directed by Jonathan and Josh Baker, Kin is about a young boy and his newly paroled adopted brother who find a strange weapon and are pursued by a vengeful gang of otherworldly soldier.
Opening in far fewer theater this weekend is Lionsgate/Pantelion Films' Spanish-language film Ya Veremos, which is the year's top-grossing film in Mexico to date. The film earned an estimated $1.8 million for the three days, putting its four-day opening at a projected $2.3 million.
Ya Veremos received an A CinemaScore, followed by an A- for Operation Finale and a B+ for Kin.
Sept. 2, 8:40 a.m. Updated with foreign grosses.
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