The film Filly Brown (pictured) by Youssef Delara and Michael D. Olmos and starring the Gina Rodriguez and the late Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera, opened in American theaters last Friday to a solid box office performance grossing $1.3 million in 188 screens across the country for a $7,250 average per theater.
The film, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, was a joint released between distribution companies Indomina and Pantelion (a Lionsgate-Televisa partnership), and was the number one grosser in over 20 theaters.
Filly Brown tells the story of a promising hip-hop rhymer from Los Angeles who finds herself in a gray area when a record producer offers her a compromising shot at stardom. Jenni Rivera, in her only film performance, stars as María Tonorio, the mother of the protagonist who is in jail.
Rivera was raised in Long Beach and has sold over 20 million albums worldwide. A successful Regional-Mexican artist and entrepreneur, she died in a plane crash in Mexico last December.
