BEIJING, April 26-- After two weeks of blistering business in Los Angeles and New York, general audiences tuned out the cartoonish Kung Fu Hustle, a Hong Kong import that raked in over$66 million in Asia.

With its estimated$7.3 million weekend at 2,503 venues the widest ever for a foreign language picture the heavily-promoted action comedy was not the next Hero or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but comparable to the goofy, American-made Kung Pow! Enter the Fist. Distributor Sony Pictures Classics said that 70 percent of the audience was males 18 to 40.

We're very happy, because we got a picture that is in a foreign language with no stars, and the audience satisfaction was through the roof, said Sony Pictures Classics co-president Tom Bernard, likening the reaction to sleeper smash My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which launched in April 2002. We were great in the metropolitan areas, but had a more difficult time in the rural areas of the Red states. Keep your eye out for this one. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)