Brief:

• Social media played a big role in promoting Warner Bros.'s film "Crazy Rich Asians," according to Talkwalker data shared with Mobile Marketer. The movie not only earned $5 million on its Aug. 15 opening day, but also spurred 173,000 social media posts in the past week, more than other films that recently premiered, including "BlacKkKlansman" (84,800 mentions), "The Meg" (47,500) and "Slender Man" (17,200).
• "Crazy Rich Asians" star Irene Choi holds the top post, spurring 71,000 likes and retweets, with a tweet that said, "Crazy Rich Asians currently has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and that's nice because if there is one thing we love more than anything else, it's an A+," per Talkwaker.
• The #CrazyRichAsians hashtag was the most popular movie-related hashtag on social media last week with 73,100 mentions, compared to 13,500 for #BlacKkKlansman. Other top trending hashtags related to "Crazy Rich Asians" included #GoldenOpen (3,400 mentions), #CrazyRichAsiansMovie (1,450) and #RepresentationMatters (1,430).

Insight:

Social media buzz, positive reviews and strong advertising support helped "Crazy Rich Asians" reap $34 million in the five days ended on Sunday, as ComScore's data indicates. However, social media activity doesn't necessarily translate into strong box office results, as "BlacKkKlansman" and "Slender Man" have shown after two weeks of lackluster ticket sales despite decent buzz on social channels.

"Crazy Rich Asians" also benefited from an effort by wealthy Asian-American businesspeople in Silicon Valley to create a cultural phenomenon by supporting the film, according to The New York Times. They started a social media hashtag campaign called #GoldenOpen, renting out dozens of theaters for special screenings of the movie during its opening week and drumming up additional excitement online. The backers have spent anywhere from $1,600 to $5,100 for each screening, and the tickets were given away to Asian-American youth and community groups, friends and VIPs.

The #GoldenOpen effort followed this year's campaign by African-American school groups, churches and businesses to buy seats in New York City and Chicago for "Black Panther," which featured a black superhero in a movie directed by a black director and starring a mostly black cast. The campaign included a social media effort with the #BlackPantherChallenge hashtag to boost publicity and raise money so that more kids could afford to see the movie, Forbes reported.