La misma luna, a film marketed in the United States as Under the Same Moon, ranked 10th at the box office over Easter weekend, smashing an opening-weekend U.S. record for a Spanish-language film. According to preliminary estimates, the film grossed $2.6 million over the weekend (Friday through Sunday), bringing its five-day total to $3.3 million.

The previous record was held by Ladrón que roba a ladrón, which opened with $1.6 million last Labor Day weekend.

Although some Spanish-language films, most recently El laberinto del fauno, have been overall more successful in the United States than La misma luna is likely to be, they typically have opened in only a handful of theaters before going into wide release. Laberinto, for example, according to IMDb, had an opening weekend gross of only $779,427. But it was shown on only 17 screens that weekend.

In contrast, according to Box Office Mojo, La misma luna, a U.S.-Mexican production, opened on 266 screens. It also opened over the weekend in Mexico, where it grossed $1.7 million.

There's another difference as well: Most of the best-known Spanish-language films shown in the United States started out showing in the art-house circuit with an inherently limited audience; only a few have expanded much beyond that to reach a general audience. La misma luna, on the other hand, was marketed primarily in areas with large Spanish-speaking populations, although the numbers indicated it probably drew a significant number of English speakers as well. Probably the best-known actor in the film to American audiences is America Ferrera, known for portraying the title character in the ABC TV series Ugly Betty, but her role in Luna is minor.

La misma luna tells the story of a 9-year-old boy, Carlitos, who is living with his grandmother in Mexico and is forced by circumstances to reunite with his mother, an illegal immigrant, in the United States. It has opened to mixed reviews: Reviewers who praised the film generally saw it as a touching, well-acted story, while its detractors saw it as melodramatic and contrived.

About.com reviewer Marcy Dermansky said she was left cold by the film but still gave it 2.5 stars out of five: "(Director Patricia) Riggen attempts to show the enormous hardship illegal immigrants face, but the actual storytelling is so filled with sunshine and resilient good cheer that true pathos of the situation never rings true." But she said the audience she saw the film with seemed satisfied with it.

You can learn more about the film from its official sites in either English or Spanish.

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