Instructions on Making the Highest Grossing Spanish Language Film Ever

When we took a gander at the Labor Day Weekend domestic box office results last September, we were stunned to see "Instructions Not Included," a Mexican title we admittedly knew very little about, sitting pretty in the four-spot with a gargantuan per theater average of $22,547.

As word-of-mouth spread, the film cracked the Top 10 for five straight weeks, until it ultimately surpassed "Pan's Labyrinth" as the highest grossing Spanish speaking film ever released in the U.S.

The endearing dramedy, now available on home entertainment, is the directorial debut of Eugenio Derbrez, a bona fide TV and movie star in his native Mexico, but a relative newcomer in America. Aside from directing, writing, and producing, Derbrez also plays Valentín Bravo, a bumbling beach bum Lothario from Acapulco who finds a baby girl, Maggie, dropped on his doorstep. Bravo heads north in search of Maggie's American mother, but when he can't find Mom and realizes he's got no papers and a very blond baby, he stays in Hollywood and becomes an unlikely stuntman and even more unlikely stand-up dad. Alas, all that is threatened when, six-years later, Mom returns to take Maggie back.

While the premise is certainly intriguing, that alone can't explain why "Instructions Not Included" became the fourth biggest foreign language film ever at the domestic box office. So to seek out instructions on how to make a such a huge cross-over hit, we called Derbrez to get him to write our instruction manual for us.

Know Your Audience:

"First of all, I know my people because I’ve been working for the Hispanics for the last 25 years… I’ve been always working for them on TV, doing my shows, and even though I never expected a success like this, I’m aware that it was a combination of many things. For example, I know what they laugh at. Because I’ve been working with them for years, I know what they laugh at, what they cry at. I know how to advertise my movie. Because I planned the strategy hand-by-hand with Pantelion [the theatrical distributor]."

Appeal to All:

"It was a film for the whole family. The last many years the Mexican or Latin American movies were very focused on violence, on drugs, on all this war that we are having in Latin America with the drug lords and…they were more for adults than for the whole family. This is the first time in many years that you can watch a film with your whole family and bring…from your kids…from your five-year old kid, to your abuelita, together to the movies… All these elements combined made a strong product, and that’s why 'Instructions Not Included' was a big success."

Don't Rush Into Things:

"We were writing the script for the last 12 years, so it was a funny and touching story. It was very well written because we took care… I gave the script to many producers, directors, people involved in this business. They gave me notes, and I was writing and re-writing constantly. That’s why we end up with a very strong script."

See Derbez discuss his inspiration for "Instructions Not Included":

Be Flexible:

"When I started with this project many years ago, I started with the idea of just acting, and I said I need a tailored script for me. Something that can fit myself as an actor. So we were working on the script for me, as an actor. Not as a director. The idea of directing the movie came in the last year after looking for many directors, and I felt that no one understood the core of the script. I felt that they were misunderstanding the comedy and the end, for example. Everyone felt that it was too strong. So I said I need to direct this film because I am the only one that has been involved for the last 12 years."

Don't Be Sexist:

"The script was written for a boy, not for a girl. So when we start the casting, it was with the idea that it has to be a boy because, for 11 years, it was written for a boy. So we start looking for the boy in New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City, and we never find it. After three months… we analyzed the script, and then we said, well, maybe we should do some changes, small changes, but it could also be a girl."

Embrace Social media:

"We opened the option for a girl, but same thing: We didn’t find it. We were about to stop the process because we were a week and a half away from the start of shooting; I was so desperate that I started tweeting. I said, on my Twitter account, I said, if you know a boy or girl with blue eyes, blonde, good actor or actress, six, seven years old with perfect English. Perfect Spanish. No accent at all in both languages. Please contact me.

That’s the way I found Loreto [Peralta]. Loreto is a normal girl. She never took classes or lesson. Never, ever. She never went to a casting agency. She was not in the business. She was a normal girl. Her mom was picking her up, and another mom was my follower on Twitter, told her, 'Eugenio just tweeted that he needs a girl like your daughter for his film.' So the mom said, 'Do you want to do the casting?' And Loreto said, 'Yeah, let’s try!' And that’s the way she appeared in my life. Thanks to Twitter that she appeared."

Don't Be Afraid of Making a Little Girl Cry:

"I was trying to make [Peralta] get into those difficult scenes when she has to cry... So I went to a corner and said, 'Just relax… are you enjoying all this?' She said, 'Yeah. I’m loving this. I mean, I never thought it was going to be so fun.' So I said, 'Well, just think that maybe in three, four weeks, all this is going to be done, and maybe we’re not going to see each other any more. Ever. All these guys that are like your family because you're getting close to them every day, they’re not going to be in your life anymore in the next four weeks. Imagine that you’re saying goodbye to everyone here.' Immediately she starts crying. It was kind of easy. She was very, very nice and sentimental."

Be Ruthless

"I felt terrible, but I realize that when you’re directing a film, you need to be cold… You need to have no heart… Because really you need to be tough. It’s the things that you don’t want to, but I needed to make Loreto cry many times. Then I say, I’m really sorry I made you cry a lot of times, and she was like, 'No, no, I’m happy because I thought I was never going to be able to cry. So don’t worry, I’m happy.' And we became really good friends."

Create Buzz

"The general market, the Americans, turned their heads to see what was going on with this small film, and it was like, what the hell is happening with this small film that is doing so well? And they start going to the theaters because of their curiosity. A lot of friends told me, my American friends, that they went to the theater and that they saw these huge lines of the Latinos, and they said what’s going on? Which film is this that everyone wants to see?"

Be Universal:

"I think it’s a universal story that you can feel related to. It doesn’t care if you’re American, or Hispanic, or whatever, or European. The film connects with almost everyone. Of course more with the Hispanic market… maybe because they know me. They think I’m funnier than the rest of the world, but even if you don’t know me, the story… it’s a good story. It’s a beautiful story between a dad and his daughter. It’s touching. It’s funny. It’s different from the kind of movies that you can watch in the US. Latinos spread the word. We have a great word of mouth. The Americans, the general market, also started recommending the film, and that’s why we did so well, because we had the union of the Hispanics plus the Americans that started watching the film. First of all because of the curiosity they had of the film."

See Eugenio Derbez in the theatrical trailer for "Instructions Not Included":

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