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WE <3 NYC- FINISHING THE GAME premiere wrap up!
Friday, Oct 12, 2007 1:40AM / Standard Entry / Members only
3 comments

WE HAD A FANTASTIC WEEKEND OPENING IN NYC, thanks to our student activists, community leaders, and super fans who came out in huge numbers. We had lines going all the way down to Grey Papayas (if you have never been to New York, you will probably assume that they sell yummy papaya bobas...but no, they sell hot dogs.) For those of you New Yorkers who missed FTG this past opening weekend, no worries. FTG IS STILL PLAYING STRONG AT IFC CENTER THEATER in the West Village. Definitely check it out this week and this upcoming weekend!

Anyways, the lines on Friday and Saturday night were a block long!!!! Because of your support and word of mouth activism, FINISHING THE GAME opened at TOP 5 at the box office.

Check out... INDIEWIRE: "The most successful single-screen debut was IFC’s "Finishing the Game," director Justin Lin's comedy about the search to replace Bruce Lee after his death during the making of his last movie...."Finishing the Game" proved that strong box office is possible from a modest marketing campaign as long as it's creative. "
When we go on our grassroots tours, we know there are folks that just want to take photos with us, and they could care less about what we are trying to do. However, we are very grateful to those who understand that WE as an Asian American community have the economic power to push for our own media dissemination. In regular English, it means: WE HAVE THE NUMBERS and THE MONEY to TELL HOLLYWOOD that... ASIAN AMERICANS WANT TO SEE OUR OWN REPRESENTATION ON SCREEN. We are all tired of how mainstream Hollywood constantly portrays Asians and Asian Americans as ching-chong ching-chong accessories on the big screen. We demand three-dimensional characters that truly represent how we are as a regular community.

So another good example is that we did absolutely phenomenal on VIDEO ON DEMAND! Anyways, bottom line is, we are very grateful that many of you came out to support FINISHING THE GAME on its opening weekend in NYC and through VIDEO ON DEMAN.

We are now heading back to the WEST COAST to represent our home turf... We will be opening in San Francisco (Embarcadero Cinemas) and Berkeley (Shattuck Cinemas) on Oct 19th. UC Berkeley's APASD better represent! ;-). We look forward to meeting our new and old friends in the Bay Area. See ya'll soon. hella soon.
-FINISHING THE GAME family.

opening weekend... WOW. the signage is HUGE!

LINES AFTER LINES... sea of PEOPLE coming to see FTG!

And then we did the infamous W.H. dance....!

Entry comments (3)

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AsianChick100
posted on Friday, Oct 12, 2007 11:14AM [Report]

hahaa...

good stuff! =)
Jaine
posted on Friday, Oct 12, 2007 2:33AM [Report]

Good job ^_^
so are you going to start selling the yellow jump suit as merchandise - if you do you should do a Breeze Loo jump suit range too. For those of us who cant wear yellow without looking jaundiced ;p
Link
posted on Friday, Oct 12, 2007 2:11AM [Report]

Looks like it was an awesome turn-out! Can't wait to see the movie!

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Wednesday, Oct 24, 2007 4:12AM (2 comments)
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OUR STORY - by Breeze Loo...
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OUR STORY - by Breeze Loo

Hello and welcome ...

... Thank you for taking the time to visit and getting to know us. Hopefully you'll consider joining our group and becoming a part of the BETTER LUCK TOMORROW & FINISHING THE GAME Family.

We are excited to announce that FINISHING THE GAME will be coming out in theaters this OCTOBER 2007. After our world premier at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, we have chosen our distribution partner. Our "official" announcement is only a few days away, but I figure I'd leak it hear first. OK, it's IFC FILMS! : )

It's been 5 years since BETTER LUCK TOMORROW. FINISHING THE GAME marks the return of director, Justin Lin, to his independent cinema roots as well as the reunion of many of the original BLT cast and crew. And this time, we're back with a 70's comedy!

A lot has happened since MTV/Paramount made their historic purchase of BLT at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. But before we talk about our future, I think it's important that we briefly reflect upon our past. BETTER LUCK TOMORROW made a significant mark in American cinema by Asian Americans. But it was not easy. Though we had a big Hollywood studio backing the film, the real success of BLT came from all of us, the Asian American community. In many ways, BLT was the first time Hollywood was able to see that Asian Americans (and African, Latino, & Caucasian Americans) wanted to see and support a film made by Asian Americans and starring Asian American actors. Hollywood was scratching their heads wondering how the heck it was possible that BLT had the highest per screen average of any film in the country their opening weekend (+$30,000) with virtually no marketing budget. But more importantly, where did all these Asian Americans come from? Truth be told, it was by all of us working together (via the internet, email campaigns, word of mouth, group buyouts of screenings, etc.) that we were all able to collectively take part in making our mark in American history. So thank you all for being a part of the BETTER LUCK TOMORROW family.

Our journey continues into 2007 and we're aiming to take it to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL! This time it's about carving out our own piece of the American Pie. Asian Americans and Asian American cinema is here to stay! There are so many world-class Asian American films that are not being seen in theaters. Not because they are not good, but because Hollywood doesn't think there's an audience for it. Our goal with FINISHING THE GAME is to prove that there's not only a devoted audience for Asian American film, but also shatter the existing paradigm and redefine our cinema as "mainstream". We know it's a tall order, but we hope FTG can be one of several vehicles to make that our reality.

We have been and will continue to be traveling across the country GrassRoots style with FINISHING THE GAME, reuniting with old friends from the BLT days and also meeting a lot of amazing new folks along the way. We would love to connect with you, your friends, and your community. Please feel free to contact us if you wish to have us come visit your group or organization and for any speaking engagements. We'll try our best to accommodate.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. We hope you'll consider being a part of the BLT/FTG family and join us on our journey.

sincerely,

- Justin Lin, Roger Fan, Sung Kang, Julie Asato, Sal Gatdula & the entire FTG/BLT Family
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