‘Instructions Not Included,' Movie In Spanish, Grosses $10 Million In US Debut Over Labor Day Weekend

Eugenio Derbez, the Mexican actor, is already a huge star in Latin America. If ticket sales of his new movie "Instructions Not Included" ("Instrucciones No Incluidas") are any indication, he just broke through in the United States, too: Derbez's directorial debut was a splash over this Labor Day weekend, grossing some $10 million in what became the biggest opening ever for a Spanish-language movie in the United States. It's surprising success has put the size and buying power of the Hispanic movie-going audience back in the spotlight.

According to portada-online.com, Santa-Monica-based studio Pantelion -- a joint venture of Hollywood studio Lionsgate Entertainment and Mexico's Televisa -- hit Univision, Telemundo and other Spanish-language TV networks and social media sites like Fandango, Facebook and YouTube hard in its promotional campaign. Hispanics in the United States make up an outsized proportion of ticket buyers; last year, they bought 10.9 million tickets to movies, over a quarter of all tickets sold, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. In a separate study, media research company Nielsen wrote, "Hispanics were the heaviest moviegoers, as they represent 18 percent of the moviegoing population but accounted for 25 percent of all movies seen. Hispanics were also the only demographic group that went to more movies in 2012 than in the prior year - 9.5 movies on average compared with 8.5 in 2011."

But Pantelion also leaned heavily on Derbez's own star power. The actor has about 3.2 million Twitter followers, and the film got about 1.5 million "likes" on his official Facebook page. He also received a lifetime achievement award on Univision's July "Premios Juventud" award show, to which 10 million viewers tuned in, according to Reuters. Pantelion chief executive Paul Presburger told Reuters that Derbez was "the biggest star you never heard of", adding, "The strength of this film is that it has had great world of mouth, and he's a big part of that."

Derbez told the Associated Press that he set out to "conquer the Anglo market" with "Instructions Not Included", in which he plays an Acapulco playboy who has to reform his ways after a former fling leaves a baby on his doorstep. "I wanted to do a moving film that touched the heart," he said. Derbez, who has appeared in only a few Hollywood movies, is famous in Latin America for less serious ventures like the television series XHDRBZ, La Familia P.Luche and Vecinos.

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