P.S. On Lilo & Stitch And The 2025 World Box Office...And That BTS

According to those boxofficemojo numbers, the real life movie version--which was amazing to see (saw it the 2nd weekend it came out)--has these numbers (as of today):

Worldwide $978 million dollars with $412 million domestic in the US and $565 million in all other markets (foreign).

Not bad work if you can get it.

The 2nd top movie of the year so far behind

Here's a great video below from behind the scenes with everyone talking about being in the film, why they wanted to tell the story that they did--a lot of great APIA voices here.

Maia and Sydney seem like they could be real sisters!

So cute. 

More movies!

But even if there is not a live sequel soon--what's even better is that the in 10/15 years the young kids that watched this will remember these Asian faces, and want to see them again in something new.

Compound interest.

On Viewing Films By Demographic

A few days ago I linked up to this post down at youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily talking about the recent protests of the film The Goods: Live Hard Sell Hard as well as who's responsible for creating a market for Asian American film and there've been some interesting posts on it lately like one down at The Angry Black Woman:

...it assumes something that I’m not sure is true, and feeds into a bigger problem. What Phillip suggests is that if Asian Americans just go and view more Asian American films, this will show Hollywood there’s a significant demand for positive portrayals. The same reasoning, IMO, underlies African Americans’ patronization of black films (and African American Interest books, and so on) — we’ve taken to heart the racist rationalization that if we don’t make it ourselves, and go see it ourselves, we can’t expect the mainstream to follow suit.

Except… African Americans have been making it ourselves, since the Sixties. We’ve been going to see those films, too, enough to create several blockbusters, catapult several African American filmmakers to auteur status, and launch a few subcultural film/theater movements.

But has all this success — all this proof that we will support our own — really changed anything in Hollywood? We’re still getting slapped in the face with grotesque stereotypes, and “allegories” for the black experience of racism that Fail miserably.

I definitely get the fact that sometimes it's the community itself that has to get the word out - DIY style - but I agree we shouldn't - and can't be - the only ones.

It's like educating people on race as an Asian American and a POC - at some point other people need to take their own responsibility to get educated. Just like we can't always be the teachers, we also shouldn't be the only ones who buy a ticket to a film that has an Asian American lead.

In reality though does it not happen until the API community - en masse - supports a film with people whole look like us to the tune of $100 million in box office receipts?

That I don't know.