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The box office verdict is out: moviegoers shelled out $26 million on Friday to unleash romantic angst and tears as they trooped to theaters to see "The Fault in Our Stars".
The young-adult drama, a film adaptation of a popular John Greene novel, easily swept past the Tom Cruise starrer, "Edge of Tomorrow", which earned around $10.7 million on the same day.
Judging from its Friday opening performance, "The Fault in Our Stars" is forecast to reach above $50 million in box office sales through the weekend.
And considering that twentieth Century Fox spent just $12 million to produce "The Fault", this weekend's actual and projected figures are a big take indeed.
But what is it about the teeny-weepy film that made it soar to such a record success that could rival blockbuster hits as Twilight Saga: New Moon, Harry Potter and other flicks that cotton to young adults?
For one, there's the popularity it gained on social media long before the cameras started rolling, initiated mainly by fans of John Greene's young-adult novel, "The Fault in Our Stars".
For another, "The Fault in Our Stars" simply succeeded in elevating elemental soap to a critically acclaimed thespian art.
It employs the kind of 'against-the-grain' treatment that makes you shed more tears when the characters you're watching are trying to control theirs, and effectively melts down your defenses as the on-screen personas try to shore up theirs.
Young romance brings inspiration and hope of the invincible kind; there's a sense of immortality when it strikes. In this case, budding romance is immediately forced to deal with mortality, as lead characters Hazel and Augustus are both afflicted with cancer.
"The Fault in Our Stars" gives enough of the hearts-and-flowers and being-in-love stuff as any film in this genre would, never mind that the theme is woven around impending death, which delivers a real stab in the heart.
Screenwriters Michael Weber and Scott Neustadter, and film Director Josh Boone made sure to remain true to the book's storyline, giving it just the right cinematic moments to bring delicate human sensibilities to life.
In sum, "The Fault in Our Stars" elicits tears for Hazel and Gus, not out of pity for their doomed romance, but for the honest, vulnerable, yet pragmatic way they lived it out in the face of death.
