Kumail Nanjiani & Emily V. Gordon’s The Big Sick Beat Transformers 5 at the Box Office … Sort Of

The Big Sick finally hit theaters this weekend, and for those of us who had been counting down the days since we first heard about the movie, the success it saw at the box office is so exciting.

If you’re not familiar, Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon (who also co-hosted the awesome podcast Indoor Kids and co-created the best comedy show in Los Angeles, The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail) wrote the movie together, based on the story of their real-life relationship.

From the official Amazon Studios synopsis:

“The Big Sick tells the story of Pakistan-born aspiring comedian Kumail (Nanjiani), who connects with grad student Emily (Zoe Kazan) after one of his standup sets. However, what they thought would be just a one-night stand blossoms into the real thing, which complicates the life that is expected of Kumail by his traditional Muslim parents. When Emily is beset with a mystery illness, it forces Kumail to navigate the medical crisis with her parents, Beth and Terry (Holly Hunter and Ray Romano) who he’s never met, while dealing with the emotional tug-of-war between his family and his heart.”

The story told in the movie is wholly personal, as, again, it parallels their actual lives. (Gordon wrote about that “medical crisis”–the medically-induced coma during which her relationship with Nanjiani solidified–in the fantastic piece “Girlfriend in a Coma.” ) And now this intimate rom-com has had one hell of an opening weekend.

No, technically, it wasn’t the #1 draw of the weekend. It didn’t bring in the $69 million Transformers did. (Make that $265 mil global.) But broken down by theater, with Transformers: The Last Knight playing in over 4,000 theaters and The Big Sick playing in 5, that little romantic comedy averaged nearly eight times Transformers’ numbers. In fact, at $435,000 ($87,000 per theater), The Big Sick has the highest per-theater average since last year’s La La Land. Oh, and it also has a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

If you don’t live in New York or Los Angeles, The Big Sick’s wide release is on July 14th. Make sure to check it out and keep this beautiful movie’s success rolling.

(via Uproxx, image: Lionsgate/Amazon)

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