'Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos' takes a top-ten box office spot over Labor Day weekend
A box office surprise just came out of Mexico; Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos (that's "The Rooster with Many Eggs" for our mostly-English-speaking audience, though "huevos" has a double meaning in Mexican Spanish slang) took a top-ten spot at the American box office for the Labor Day weekend.
Box Office Mojo is placing the movie with an estimated 7th or 8th place (final tallies will most likely arrive Monday) with an approximate box office of $3.4 million; this is a fantastic run for a movie that is currently only available in Spanish, and which opened in just 395 theaters.
The movie did seem to come out of nowhere to English-speaking American audiences; the announcement it exists was In-Fur-Nation's top story at this piece's press time. Cartoon Brew notes it "had no […] mainstream press coverage", so furries weren't the only group to drop the ball.
In addition to being screened in only Spanish, it had no promotion in English. According to Variety, though there were no English language advertising, the movie was heavily advertised in Spanish in areas with high Mexican American populations, including restaurant tie-ins.
In addition to making the top ten, Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos was first place for average money made over the weekend at individual theaters, with $8,806 per theater. This high average rate of attendance helped account for its stellar performance. For comparison, Shaun the Sheep had a similar total box office as Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos, but nearly 2,000 more screens showing the movie (Flayrah's own review of Shaun the Sheep notes the lack of attendance).
Originally released last month in Mexico (where it has made approximately $6 million there), Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos is currently rated a "fresh" 70% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, only ten reviews are available, so a "consensus" has not been reached (all but the two most recent are in Spanish). IMDB's plot synopsis:
Toto was born the runt of the litter. But, when an evil rancher threatens to destroy his home and his family, Toto must go from a timid young "chicken" to a brave and scrappy rooster. Toto and his friends (must band together on an egg-citing adventure that will prove that big surprises can come from little packages.
About the author
crossaffliction (Brendan Kachel) — read stories — contact (login required)a reporter and Red Fox from Hooker, Oklahoma, interested in movies, horror, stand up comedy
Formerly Wichita's only furry comic.
Comments
If I may blow my own horn, and Rod O'Riley's, we predicted this earlier on "In-Fur-Nation" and here.
http://dogpatch.press/2015/08/26/anthropomorphic-animated/#comments
Fred Patten
I didn't feel like hitting the theaters during the Labor Day weekend, but I did go and see this with a foxy friend this past weekend. I only know a couple words of Spanish, so I'm sure I missed out on most of the double-entendres and other wordplay, but there are definitely quite a few racy jokes that made it into the English subs, and I can see why the movie got a PG-13 rating :) There's even a scene where one of the eggs asks the female egg for a "massage with happy ending"—and she agrees to it! (Then they both turn to the audience and wink before the scene changes :)
We went to an 8pm showing on Saturday in Austin, TX, and at first were the only ones in the theater. Eventually more people came in though, but it was really sparsely-attended. I think there were around ten people total--including some young kids. I don't know if everyone who wanted to see it already saw it last week, or if 8pm was too late for an ostensibly kiddie movie, but it couldn't have made the top 10 with the attendance we saw.
We both enjoyed the movie. It's no masterpiece, and the plot's nothing groundbreaking... but it's well-animated and fun :) I like foreign animation, and it's great that this got a US theatrical release.
Also, I learned about a new species of animal—they only get a tiny bit of screen time, but there's a pair of tlacuaches, or Mexican mouse opossum. Although for some reason, they look a lot like rats... even the characters are confused as to what they are: in this clip from the first movie in the series, the egg says something like "Hey, rat!", and the opossum says something about "tlacuache". In RL, they look similar to the more familiar (to those in the US) Virginia opossum, and are kinda cute in an opossum way :)
If you'd like to submit a full review, that'd be awesome; we'd love to feature it, and new voices in our articles are always welcome!
Edit: Turns out you are a contributor; 2003 was a bit before my time, but a dozen years is as good a time as any to get back in the game!
I saw “Un Gallo Con Muchos Huevos” (with my sister Sherry pushing my wheelchair, as usual) at the Burbank Center’s big AMC 16 theater, not a Hispanic neighborhood theater. It was better attended than we usually see, but still pretty sparse.
We enjoyed it. The plot wasn’t original, but (spoiler alert!) I appreciated that the rooster whom Toto fights turned out to be an honorable adversary, rather than another childhood-hero-who-turns-out-to-be-a-villain, as in “Up”, “Turbo”. “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2”, etc. Yes, there was a definite feeling of not getting some of the Mexican ingroup references, but there were enough U.S. cinematic references – George Lucas, the Godfather trilogy, “Rocky”, Ahnold etc. -- to keep the movie enjoyable. My main objection was a personal one; this movie makes cockfighting look so pleasant and bloodless compared to the reality. But considering that it's a family fantasy-comedy, it's probably irrelevant to criticize it for whitewashing cockfighting.
Fred Patten
As of the September 18-20 weekend, “Un Gallo Con Muchos Huevos” has dropped to 12th place in the box office grosses, in its 3rd weekend out, with a total of $1,071,849 from 606 theaters.
It’s showing theatrically only in Spanish with English subtitles. The English-language dub will be saved for the DVD release.
Fred Patten
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