Father of the Bride Remake Breaks Records for HBO Max

The newly-released remake of Father of the Bride, which stars Andy Garcia and Gloria Estefan, launched to huge numbers on HBO Max. The film, which released on Thursday, had a launch that makes it the most-watched original HBO Max movie yet, and has been a global hit. Its Latino characters likely helped it blow up, because in addition to the Father’s Day hook, the movie is reportedly doing very well in Mexico, which is HBO Max’s second-biggest territory behind the U.S. The film launched at #1 in the world on the streaming service, and is one of the top ten most-watched title launches of any kind in Mexico, per Deadline.

The last part is notable, because with a number of big-hit movies coming to the platform either day-and-date, or after a short theatrical window, most of the biggest launches on HBO Max have been for blockbuster movies like The Batman. That Father of the Bride is making its mark alongside those, despite having a tiny fraction of their production or marketing budgets, is certainly notable.

Father of the Bride stars Andy Garcia, Gloria Estefan, Adria Arjona, Isabela Merced, Diego Boneta, Ana Fabrega, and Chloe Fineman. The story follows a father coming to grips with his daughter’s upcoming wedding, as told through the prism of multiple relationships within a large, sprawling Cuban American family. Matt Lopez wrote the screenplay. Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner are producers on the project with Garcia, Jesse Ehrman, Paul Perez, and Ted Gidlow serving as executive producers. The film is directed by Gaz Alazraki and is the third film adaptation of Father of The Bride, which was first published as a novel in 1949. 

The 1991 version that many viewers think of as the “original” Father of the Bride was a remake of a 1950 movie of the same name, which starred Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor, among others. In 1951, that movie got a sequel called Father’s Little Dividend. In the 1961–62 season, CBS also had a Father of the Bride TV series.

Early in the development of Disney+, Father of the Bride was one of the properties that was rumored to be in development for a remake on the streaming platform, although unlike properties like Honey I Shrunk the Kids, The Muppets, and Lizzie McGuire, Disney never got it off the ground, and it found its way to HBO Max.