Eugenio Derbez directorial debut on the big screen, "Instructions Not Included," continues its breaking records at the box office. The Spanish-language film has become the most successful, grossing $38.6 million to date, summing up the $3.4 million it earned over this past weekend. Derbez has now debunked fellow Mexican Guillermo Del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth," which held the record with $37.6 million. As a foreign-language film, it holds the fourth position behind movies like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Life Is Beautiful" and "Hero."
“The film’s success reaffirms our belief that there is a large audience in the U.S. with an appetite for commercial films with Latino characters and themes," Paul Presburger, CEO of distributor Pantelion told The Hollywood Reporter. "Its performance is a testament to the prodigious talents of Eugenio Derbez; Lionsgate and Televisa’s support, guidance and vision since our launch; an adroit and focused marketing campaign that we developed with Televisa and Univision and the superb distribution and expansion plan executed by the Lionsgate theatrical distribution team."
The U.S. audience is not the only one that fell in love with the story of Valentín (Derbez) and his newfound daughter, Maggie (Loreto Peralta). Eugenio's home country is also devouring this hit comedy and over 8.6 million people have seen it, grossing 355.3 million Mexican pesos (about US $27 million) in its first 10 days at the box office. The film is known south of the border as "No Se Aceptan Devoluciones" and it has already surpassed the previous record holder "Nosotros Los Nobles," which this past summer's success story scoring 7.2 million viewers in 15 weeks, according to Quién. "Instructions" has been a bigger than than "Sexo, Pudor y Lágrimas" ("Sex, Shame And Tears"), "Amores Perros" ("Love's A Bitch"), "El Crimen Del Padre Amaro" ("The Crime Of Father Amaro") and "Rudo y Cursi."
Seeing the success of the the film at the box office, Eugenio was in hopes that the Mexican Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences nominated "Instructions Not Included" as their foreign language entry at the Oscar's, but that did not happen. "It hurts very much. I don't believe that my movie is better or worse than another, but I think that the Academy knows what is best for the country in the film festivals; I think that my film was perfect to be an Oscar contender," Derbez told El Economista after finding out that his film was not nominated. Eugenio has not lost hope and is now looking to submit his work for the independent movie category.
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