*Eddie Murphy’s “Coming 2 America” was the most-watched streaming film on Amazon Prime during its first week of release.
Per TheWrap, the feature comedy “has received mixed reviews since its release, receiving a 52% critics score and 48% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes,” the outlet writes. The sequel to the ’80s comedy topped “The Spongebob Movie: Sponge On The Run,” which premiered on the new Paramount+ streaming service.
According to the report, the top five most-watched streaming films of the weekend were Netflix’s “To All the Boys: Always and Forever” and “I Care A Lot,” along with HBO Max’s “Tom & Jerry,” which was also released in theaters and grossed nearly $23 million at the US box office over the past 10 days.
Meanwhile, Murphy previously gushed about reprising his “Coming to America” role more than 30 years after the original.
“After many years of anticipation, I’m thrilled that Coming to America 2 is officially moving forward,” Murphy said in a statement. “We’ve assembled a great team that will be led by Craig Brewer, who just did an amazing job on Dolemite, and I’m looking forward to bringing all these classic and beloved characters back to the big screen.”
The 1988 film centers on wealthy African Prince Akeem who travels to New York in his search for a bride. Arsenio Hall played Murphy’s best friend. The film received two Oscar nominations for Best Costume Design and Best Makeup.
For the sequel, Akeem returns to America 30 years later with hopes of finding the son he never knew about, a street-savvy Queens native named Lavelle.
Murphy and Hall co-star alongside Jermaine Fowler, Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan, KiKi Layne, Shari Headley, with Wesley Snipes and James Earl Jones. Also starring John Amos, Teyana Taylor, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Paul Bates, Nomzamo Mbatha, Bella Murphy, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Paul Bates.
Craig Brewer directed from a screenplay by Kenya Barris, Barry W. Blaustein and David Sheffield.
Brewer, who worked with Murphy on “Dolemite Is My Name,” previously dished about the project to Entertainment Weekly.
“There’s this moment that I always go back to: when we were screening Dolemite Is My Name, I worked on Empire a little bit, so I had some of the writers come and take a look at the movie,” Brewer said. “They were all in the back row of the screening room, and Eddie and Arsenio walked in and sat down in the second row, just like old friends do. And I could see everybody in the back’s eyes getting big and pointing down to both of them.”
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