"The Inbetweeners," a film based on the British sitcom of the same name, earned the highest opening box office of any UK comedy in history this past weekend.
The Guardian reports that the film took in a little more than £13m, giving it an edge over the sequel to "Bridget Jones' Diary," which opened strong in 2004. The Hollywood Reporter notes that the film's opening fared even better in the UK than big-budget Hollywood fare like "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" and "Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon." Considering the film's modest £3.5m budget, that's quite a reason to celebrate.
American audiences are probably not familiar with "Inbetweeners," which ran for three seasons on the E4 network in the UK, and followed a group of hapless suburban teenagers. The show has been a raging success overseas despite its rather mundane subject matter, winning the BAFTA Audience Award, and posing itself as a slightly nerdier alternative to the hyper-sexed world of "Skins." Its season three premiere was that network's highest rated original show ever.
The closest American cousin to "Inbetweeners" seems to be "Freaks and Geeks," which was one of the greatest television shows ever produced about high school, but floundered in the ratings. Nonetheless, with so much attention being paid to this franchise overseas, an American crossover seems inevitable.
The film will be released in the U.S. in late November.
Watch the trailer below: