How Crazy Rich Asians made it to cinemas: lucky timing amid #OscarsSoWhite backlash, a great pitch, and its Singapore setting

Producers and director were onto Kevin Kwan’s hit novel early, and from the start saw it as a film with universal appeal. They turned down Netflix, and with Hollywood under pressure to use more non-white actors, Warner Bros. was sold on it

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Crazy Rich Asians director Jon Chu (second from left), author of the novel the film is based on Kevin Kwan (far right) and cast members arrive for the film’s premiere in Hollywood. Photo: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images/AFP

Published: 9:00pm, 15 Aug 2018Updated: 5:55pm, 16 Aug 2018

Crazy Rich Asians has all the trappings of a classic Hollywood rom-com. Beautiful people in love. Stunning locations. Disapproving relatives.

But as the first English-language contemporary Hollywood movie with a nearly all-Asian cast since The Joy Luck Club was released 25 years ago, this film is carrying more weight than the typical lighthearted big-screen fantasy.

If the movie does well at the box office, it could open doors for Asian and Asian American actors and filmmakers in Hollywood at a time when US entertainment companies are taking heat for not giving enough opportunities to non-whites. Its success would also be a big win for Warner Bros., which gambled on the film by giving it a wide summer release and a robust marketing campaign.

That’s a lot of pressure to put on a US$30 million love story, especially at a time when the romantic-comedy genre has been all-but-abandoned by the franchise-focused major film companies.

Michelle Yeoh (centre) in a scene from Crazy Rich Asians. Its all-Asian cast of characters initially put Hollywood off adapting Kevin Kwan’s bestselling novel for the big screen, an insider told one of the film’s producers.

The studio and the filmmakers are about to find out if their bet will pay off. The movie, based on Kevin Kwan’s bestselling novel about a young Chinese American economics professor who discovers her boyfriend comes from one of Singapore’s wealthiest families, is expected to collect a solid US$29 million in the US from Wednesday, when it opens in cinemas, to Sunday, according to pre-release audience surveys.