Mexican comedy Instructions Not Included / No se aceptan devoluciones (pictured), the directorial debut of comedian Eugenio Derbez scored big at the U.S. weekend box office landing in number five by earning an impressive $7.5 million from 347 theaters with a whopping $21,614 average per screen. The film marks the biggest opening ever for a Spanish-language film in the United States.
The Mexican comedy was released by Pantelion, a joint venture between Lionsgate and Televisa, it marked the company's largest theatrical release to date and it's highest-grossing (it grossed six times the entire release of their previous release, Girl in Progress). Boosted by an A+ grade at CinemaScore, the film is expected to hit the $9.3 million mark in the four-day holiday weekend.
Instructions Not Included follows Valentin (played by Derbez), who is Acapulco's resident playboy-until a former fling leaves a baby on his doorstep and takes off without a trace. Valentín leaves Mexico for L.A. to find the baby's mother, but only ends up finding a new home for himself and his newfound daughter, Maggie. An unlikely father figure, Valentin raises Maggie for six years, while also establishing himself as one of Hollywood's top stuntmen to pay the bills, with Maggie acting as his on-set coach. As Valentin raises Maggie, she forces him to grow up too. But their unique and offbeat family is threatened when Maggie's birth mom shows up out of the blue, and Valentin realizes he's in danger of losing his daughter- and his best friend.
