Mexico's moviemaking brothers Gabriel (l.) and Rodolfo Riva Palacio (r.) are readying the premiere in the U.S. and Mexico of "Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos" (A Rooster with Many Eggs), the first Mexican animated feature film to be distributed in the neighboring country by Pantelion Films, a major studio. EFE/File
LOS ANGELES – Pantelion's Spanish-language animated film "Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos" stood out among new releases in the U.S. over the Labor Day weekend, taking in $4.4 million from just 395 locations.
"Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos" ("A Rooster With Many Eggs") is the first Mexican animated feature to get a wide distribution in the U.S. by Pantelion Films. The movie is the creation of Mexico's cartoon-making brothers, Gabriel and Rodolfo Riva Palacio.
Earlier this year, Gabriel Riva told EFE in an interview: "We're very pleased about the quality we achieved," adding that, "it's a dream come true" to be able to debut the movie in Hollywood.
Also this weekend, mass audience blockbusters gave way to small and highly targeted works at the box office.
Sony's faith-based "War Room" fought its way to first place in its second weekend in release, earning an estimated $12.6 million across the four-day holiday weekend. The micro-budget family drama has earned $27.9 million to date according to the studio.
New release "A Walk in the Woods," debuted in third place, behind "Straight Outta Compton," with $10.5 million from 1,960 screens, while the action pic "The Transporter Refueled" took fifth with a lackluster $9 million from over 3,400 screens.
Riva said in the EFE interview earlier this year that "Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos," which cost $5.3 million to make and employed a production team of 500 people, is their best project to date.
"People won't believe we made it on such a small budget, above all because of the quality," Gabriel said. The movie premiered on Aug. 21 in Mexico and Sept. 4 in the United States.
"This is our first movie that begins to compete on the international market, but to go up against DreamWorks and Pixar we still need a lot more money, talent, time, training and studies," he added.
"Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos" is the sequel to the brothers' first two animated features, 2006's "Una Película de Huevos" ("A Film About Eggs"), and "Otra Pelicula de Huevos y un Pollo" ("Another Movie About Eggs and a Chicken"), which was released in 2009.
The Associated Press and EFE contributed to this report.
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