Movies With Butter

A few weeks after Stephen Chow’s “The Mermaid” had broken all sorts of box office records in China ($450M and still counting), its U.S. distributor Sony launched the film in 35 theaters over the weekend without any kind of marketing.

They just kinda threw it out there.

To their surprise, tickets for the comedy were selling out. The film grossed $1M at the box office over the weekend from those 35 sites, with a per theater average of $29,000 -- by far, the highest of all current releases, including “Deadpool.”

To say that the distributor underestimated the film’s earning potential in the States is an understatement.

Now, they’re ramping up the film’s release to meet demand. It’s expanding to more theaters across the nation this Friday, and I’m happy to see that it’ll be playing in my city Sacramento.

Click over to TwitchFilm.com for a full list of cities where you can watch the film (and maybe win some free tickets).

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