By Luis Reyes
Hollywood, CA — Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney has opened nationwide to a $55 million weekend box office gross, breaking a box office record for an October film opening. The critically acclaimed motion picture directed by Cuaron from a script by Cuaron and his son Jonas is sure to be nominated for Oscars.
Eugenio Derbez’s Instructions not Included has become the highest grossing Spanish language film in the U.S. and is headed toward a $40 million box-office take in six weeks of release. Derbez in an interview at the university Of Southern California this weekend at a Mexican Film Symposium remarked, that despite his TV success in Mexico, it took him almost ten years to raise the $5.5 million necessary to make the film and a couple of weeks before the film’s opening, he was still $500,000 short of what was needed to release the completed film and had to beg and borrow for the final funds. Never expecting it to be the hit that it has become, it has opened doors in Hollywood and he has had meetings with several studios for future films. Also successful this weekend is Pulling Strings, a bilingual romantic comedy starring Mexican heartthrob Jaime Camil and Laura Ramsay which opened to the tune of $ 2.7 million in the U.S. Pantelion Films seems to have finally found a successful winning formula for reaching filmgoers after several years of trying different film releases that have eluded audiences and box office success.
It takes time to develop films, engage talent, produce product and market to rapidly changing audience tastes and convincing theater chains. Pantelion’s success with Instructions Not Included and Pulling Strings is to be applauded and we look forward to more films including the upcoming Chavez: the Fight in The Fields starring Michael Pena and Rosario Dawson, tentatively scheduled for release in March of 2014. This Friday October 11th sees the opening of Robert Rodriguez’s all- star sequel to Machete, Machete Kills starring Danny Trejo as the titular hero. This time he is joined by Mel Gibson, Jessica Alba, Lady Gaga, Antonio Banderas, Charlie Sheen AKA Carlos Estevez, Sofia Vergara, Alexa Vega, Demian Bichir, Vanessa Hudgens and Cuba Gooding Jr. Although panned by critics, it will be interesting to see if Rodriguez’s fans will support his film this weekend!
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