AlDub Update: ‘Imagine You & Me’ Expected To Be Smash Hit As Alden And Yaya Dub’s First Anniversary Approaches


AlDub is growing ever-closer to its first anniversary, and the movie Imagine You & Me is expected to be the cherry atop the historic week for Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza.

The first major movie for the popular pair will be released worldwide on July 13, showing Richards and Mendoza as two Filipinos who meet by chance in Italy and fall in love. Though the two have very different ideas about love and initially see themselves as nothing of a match, a romance soon blossoms.

Imagine You & Me is expected to become a blockbuster, the Manila Bulletin noted. The report added that Mendoza herself had a very influential role in the movie’s production.

“AlDub fans eagerly await the release of the movie and Maine’s supporters are even more excited due to the fact that their idol, the ‘Dubsmash Queen’ herself wrote and sang the theme song of the movie directed by Mark Tuviera. Did you know that it took only 15 minutes for Maine to write the song ‘Imagine You And Me?’ Well, it’s because the sentiment of the song has always been in her heart.”

The romance that would go on to sweep the Philippines and become a global sensation started relatively quietly on July 16, 2015, when the noontime show Eat Bulaga introduced two new characters. Actor Alden Richards played Alden, while viral video sensation Maine Mendoza played Yaya Dub, a pair of star-crossed lovers whose trials played out during live segments on the show.

Even the stars didn’t know at the time just how big the AlDub hysteria would become.

“During AlDub’s first month, I thought that it would fizzle out as fast as it became a hit,” Richards told the Inquirer.

Instead, the love story blossomed in front of an ever-increasing audience, with millions watching AlDub in the Philippines and a growing audience across the world. It culminated with Tamang Panahon, a live event in October that the Inquirer noted drew 55,000 people to the Philippine Arena.

The show set plenty of other records along the way, with Eat Bulaga dominating the ratings and fans flooding Twitter to show their love for the pair. The show introduced daily hashtags for fans, and bigger events in Alden and Yaya’s romance drew a bigger response — the biggest was #AlDubEBTamangPanahon, which had more than 40 million tweets, the most ever for a 24-hour period.

Even though the legion of AlDub fans remains just as excited as they were the month the love story first debuted, there have been plenty of critics as well, the Inquirer noted. Some are tired of the seemingly endless soap opera that is the romance between Yaya Dub and Alden, while others have taken to making attacks on the actors themselves.

“I’ve always been bashed for my appearance… They say my mouth is big, that my complexion isn’t as nice, and so on,” Mendoza told the Inquirer. “But I don’t really mind. What really ticks me off is when my family gets dragged. Bashers will find flaws and are willing to bash innocent people.”

But despite the flak the pair has received from haters, there has been an overwhelming sense of excitement for Imagine You & Me. Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza went on hiatus from Eat Bulaga earlier this year while filming the movie, leaving AlDub fans only to grow in anticipation.

And aside from the release of Imagine You & Me, there is another huge event on the way for AlDub fans. Eat Bulaga has been building toward the first anniversary of the segment’s debut, which comes just three days after the release of the movie. The anniversary itself is expected to draw millions of viewers.

[Image via GMA]

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