The 2003 romantic movie My First Romance became a box office hit. The film revolves around four lead characters that fall in love and leave it up to fate to decide their future together. John Lloyd Cruz and Bea Alonzo played two of the central characters.
Lloydie and Bea have starred since in a total of eight films together (all romance themed), with The Mistress (2012) as their most successful film project, which earned P262.82 million at the tills. Each movie though was remarkable. But the most memorable Lloydie-Bea film, in terms of box office performance and its influence in pop culture, was the 2007 romantic movie One More Chance. It gained a cult following on social media and was the highest-grossing film of that year. These are the very same reasons why moviegoers and solid fans anticipate the return of Popoy and Basha to the big screen this November.
In the 2007 movie, Popoy (John Lloyd) and Basha (Bea) are beautifully showcased as a young couple that decided to part ways to chart their individual careers – a typical story of college lovers. They were once inseparable, that is why it is extremely difficult for them to remain apart from each other. This causes for old their old feelings to resurface hence the title One More Chance – allowing love to have another turn.
Meanwhile, in the sequel titled A Second Chance, Popoy and Basha are now depicted as a married couple that deals with the ups and downs in their relationship. Although the title could have been the better title of the prequel, it’s obvious that Star Cinema just wanted to establish the connection (as if making Lloydie and Bea reprise their roles is not a giveaway). And besides, they never thought the movie would become that big a hit and a sequel during that time was not on the drawing board.
Nonetheless, A Second Chance is a much awaited romantic movie, not only because Lloydie and Bea have an undeniable onscreen chemistry and their tandem has proven to be one of the most successful big screen pairings, the plot has a promise of maturity and a much smarter romantic storytelling. And just like the first installment, fans are already waiting for a string of on point and painful “hugot lines.” You see, even before the more current romcoms used “hugot lines,” Popoy and Basha were already doing it. And that alone ups the pressure for the film to do well and meet moviegoers’ expectations.
Box office hits
A Second Chance could be the last romantic film we are going to see before the Metro Manila Film Festival on Christmas day. So, all eyes are on the movie whether or not it will make another film history just like its prequel.
However, in terms of box office performance and the production of quotable “hugot” movie lines, Lloydie and Bea’s film has a tough competition to beat. It’s Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo starrer romcom Crazy Beautiful You, which reportedly earned P322 million. It’s also the most successful local film this year.
The romcom set the trend, after its release in February, a few other romantic movies followed suit and made impressive performance at the local tills. They were: You’re My Boss, which grossed P210 million; The Love Affair that earned P300 million; The Breakup Playlist that raked in P160 million; the surprise box office That Thing Called Tadhanda with P120 million gross revenue; Just The Way You Are that registered P100 million gross earnings; and most recently, Everyday I love You which is on its third week at the movie houses amassing more than P100 million worth of gross receipts.