When the industry needed them the most, Star Cinema delivered. Petersen Vargas' Un/Happy For You opens to a robust ₱20.5 million on its opening day in the Philippines.
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| Joshua Garcia and Julia Barretto in Un/Happy For You. (C) Star Cinema |
This opening is currently the highest for a local film in the country - passing My Sassy Girl (₱5.2 million). It also ranks third among all films that opened this year here behind Inside Out 2 (₱88.8 million) and Deadpool & Wolverine (₱24.5 million, affected by early mall closures).
What a comeback for the Joshua Garcia-Julia Barretto (JoshLia) loveteam. This is five times higher than their most recent team up - horror pic Block Z which opened to ₱4 million. It also surpassed their previous peak opener Unexpectedly Yours (₱14 million) back in 2017. The numbers are a proof that love teams in a romantic genre are still our own version of movie franchises.
Star Cinema went as early as July for the mall campaign of Un/Happy. The cast barnstormed key malls in Luzon and Visayas and it has shown strong results. Of course, it wouldn't fully work without the easy-to-sell concept and the two lead actors here - Joshua Garcia and Julia Barretto. It remains a challenge how non-romance films or films not featuring iconic love teams can be marketed but it's obviously not the problem for Star Cinema here. The studio also just announced another romantic movie featuring a new love team: Kim Chiu and Paulo Avelino.
Word-of-mouth remains key and we'll have to see how critic and audience receptions will turn out. For now, it's off to a very strong start.
