Crazy Rich Asians , the first major Hollywood film with a predominantly Asian cast in decades opens big at the box office! The film managed to haul an impressive $35 million during its Wednesday-Sunday opening weekened at the US domestic box office, and proves once again that diversity sells.

It is not only in the cash register that it is making waves, it seems that critics are also suitably impressed. The movie currently holds a 93% rating at Rotten Tomatoes! 

The movie is also projected to earn at least $100 million at the domestic market, which more than makes up the film's production budget of $30 million. With that in mind expectations are high that it may replicate its success in the international market particularly in the Southeast Asian region where Crazy Rich Asians is set, and filmed. It is also the place where majority of the cast comes from.

However, it is here that the movie is criticized for one major drawback. And it is due to its erasure of the "brown asian" . In the context of Singapore where the film is predominantly set 15% of the population is supposed to be malayan and 6% are supposed to be of Indian origin. In the main cast only Filipino-American actor Nico Santos fits the bill of a "brown asian" however leading man Henry Golding is half Malaysian with Iban ancestry. 

Journalist Cat Wang of Singapore pointed out,

“The movie perpetuates the misguided view that to be Asian means to be Chinese, so while critics and starstruck fans have hailed Crazy Rich Asians as a decisive victory for Asians everywhere, in reality, such an assessment is simplistic at its very best."

Director John M. Chu stated during a press conference,

“We decided very early on that this is not the movie to solve all representation issues. This is a very specific movie, we have a very specific world, very specific characters. This is not going to solve everything.”

Well it is still major step in the right direction especially for Asian-American who seldom get to see themselves in western entertainment.