Spanish Affairs (aka Ocho Apellidos Vascos) is No. 1 for the fourth weekend in a row with an estimated take in the frame of $7.2M at 475 dates. Other openings this weekend included Noah, Need For Speed and Rio 2. The Emilio Martínez Lázaro-directed Spanish Affairs scored the biggest original Spanish comedy opening of all time on March 14 and was the biggest debut for all films this year in Spain. It's the story of rigidly Andalusian stud Rafa who falls for a Basque woman and plays the part of a local to win her over. The fish-out-of-water comedy has cultural resonance given the historical strife between the Basque country and the rest of Spain. After decades of violence, the Basque separatist movement, ETA, announced a cessation of its armed activity in 2011, and now it seems enough time has passed for locals to be OK with laughing at a film that uses the cultural divide as a comedic device. What's more, the film comes at a time of an increasing independence movement on the part of Catalonia (made up of the provinces of Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona). "It is very, very healthy for all of us that we are laughing at ourselves and especially that people in troubled areas of the country are able to laugh at themselves," Spanish Film Academy president Enrique Gonzalez Macho told local television last week, according to Reuters.
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