Sep 6, 2015

Mexico's "Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos" surprises with the top 10 bows in the US

UPDATE (Sunday 1pm ET): Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos landed in eighth place this weekend with $3.4 million. The film is separated by a small amount from the 7th place film, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and could overtake that film when final numbers are released.

For the 3-day weekend, Gallo easily owned the highest per-theater average of any film in the top 20, with $8,608. The next closest film was War Room with $6,127 per theater. The first-ever Spanish-language animated feature to be released wide in U.S. theaters, Gallo is now projected to end the four-day holiday with $4.4 million.

Also notable, Disney expanded the Pixar film Inside Out this weekend, allowing it to claim tenth place with $3.1 million. The film is now less than $2 million shy of the $350 million mark, which appears to be Disney's goal.

Original Saturday Story: Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos (A Rooster with Many Eggs) the PG-13 Mexican animated feature that was released yesterday in the United States, will end up among the top 10 films at the U.S. box office this weekend. The film made $885,000 on Friday, and is headed to a robust $3 million Fri-Sun total (and $4 million for the Fri-Mon holiday period).

SEE ALSO: Mexican Hit Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos Opens Today in the U.S.

This is a remarkable accomplishment considering that the film opened in under 400 theaters, is screening in its original Spanish language with English subtitles, and had no English-language advertising campaign or mainstream press coverage.

Even more remarkable: Gallo is trending toward this weekend's best per-theater average among all films in the top 10, beating Hollywood blockbusters like Straight Outta Compton and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation.

Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos, produced by Huevocartoon Producciones, will come close to matching last month's release of Shaun the Sheep, which netted $4 million in its opening weekend. The fleecy Aardman stop-mo pic, however, opened in nearly 2,000 more theaters (2,320 theaters for Shaun compared to 395 for Gallo) and had a far bigger profile in the United States thanks to Aardman's brand. (Interestingly, Gallo was released by Pantelion Films, a Spanish distributor that is a joint-venture between Televisa and Lionsgate, the latter of which also released Shaun the Sheep.)

Gallo launched in Mexico on August 20, where it has been the country's number one film for two weeks running, and is currently the top-grossing local release of 2015 in that country.

Stay tuned to Cartoon Brew for updated box office numbers throughout the weekend.