Press Release
*For Immediate Release*
NFVF Releases Mid-Year Box Office Report – 2017
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) has released the South African Box Office Report for the first half of the 2017/18 financial year. The Box Office Report is a collation and analysis of data on the performance of films released theatrically in South Africa.
In the past few months (January – June 2017) the performance of local films at box office has been very weak with most local films earning less than R3.5 million perceivable to deteriorating domestic spending. This can be seen as a result of increased prices and weak economic growth.
From the report, the following can be deduced:
- The year under review showed a decline in box office revenues, for both local and international earnings
- The total South Africa’s box office receipts in the first half of 2017 were R568.1 million, down 3% compared to 2016
- SA produced films earned over R30 million revenues (down from R43.8 million in the previous year) translating to a 31% in decline of box office earnings
- South Africa’s market share fell to 5% of the box office revenue from 7% in the previous year
- A total of 106 films were released in South African cinemas, out of these only 10 were SA produced
- Of the 10 SA produced films, 40% (4) of the films were partially NFVF funded earning R22.9 million in total at box office
- The top earning releases in 2017 were Fast and Furious 8, Beauty and the Beast, as well as Fifty Shades Darker
- Amongst the top 20 films, Keeping up with the Kandasamy’s, as South African production was number 11th earning R16.3 million on its own. Action was the most popular genre among SA cinema-goers in 2017, followed by Action/Adventure and Animation. Drama films had the highest proportion of releases.
The second half of 2017however is promising for the theatrical release of South African films with local and international award-winning productions set to take the screens. A list of local films the audience can look forward to, are as follows:
The Wound which scooped two awards at the Durban International Film Festival for best director of a South African film and best actor. The Wound is a film about Xolani who joins men from his community on a journey to the mountains to initiate a group of teenagers into manhood. Xolani’s entire existence starts to unravel when a defiant initiate from the city discovers his best-kept secret, a forbidden love. The Wound is set to release on the 16th of August 2017.
Krotoa, about a feisty, bright, young 11 year old girl who is removed from her close-knit Khoi tribe to serve Jan van Riebeeck, her uncle’s trading partner. She is brought into the first Fort established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652. There she grows into a visionary young woman who assimilates the Dutch language and culture so well that she rises to become an influential interpreter for van Riebeeck who became the first Governor of the Cape Colony. As such, Krotoa ends up being rejected by her own Khoi people and destroyed by the Dutch when she tries to find the middle way between the two cultures.
Krotoa shown international success after winning Best Film at the 8th annual Harlem International Film Festival in New York, Award of Excellence at the International Film Festival for Women, Social Issues, and Zero Discrimination, Best of Show Award at the Depth Of Field International Film Festival, Platinum Award at the International Movie Awards, Diamond Award at the Filmmakers World Festival, to name a few. Krotoa is set to release on the 4th of August 2017.
Finders Keepers, a brand new South African comedy that features a host of big name actors and comedians is a project of the Emerging Black Film Maker initiative, run by the NFVF and the IDC. Finders Keepers will release in theatres on the 18th August 2017. The storyline is full of twists and turns, and promises to be a high speed comedic experience.
Nommer 37, tells the story of Randall, entrapped in his apartment, a recent paraplegic in financial debt to a loan shark, initiates a dangerous blackmail scheme when he witnesses a powerful gangster commit murder while observing his neighbours through binoculars. Nommer 37 which had an incredible reception at the 2014 Silwerskerm Festival under the short film category will allow audiences to enjoy the feature film on the 25th of August 2017.
Pop, Lock ‘n Roll, which will be releasing on the 29th of September 2017, is about Raps, an ambitious street style, hip hop dancer from a poor neighborhood who believes that money is everything. He gets a lucky break and rises as a professional entertainer, but when he falls in love with the beautiful Brazilian wife of the gangster-come-producer who’s making his career, he’ll have to risk career and life to find true happiness.
Vaya, has had tremendous support on the continent, winning, Best South African Film at the Durban International Film Festival, Best Sound; Best Screenplay; and Best Director at the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), as well as Best Screenplay at the Africa Magic Viewer’s Choice Awards and The Special Jury prize for Outstanding Film at AFRIFF 2016 to name a few. Vaya is about three people who board the train bound for Johannesburg. Strangers, each on their own mission, with a simple task to complete and in search of family to help them. Vaya will be releasing on the 27th of October 2017.
Liewe Kersfeesvader, about a teenage beauty queen who is flung into swift adulthood when her father assumes a new identity: Father Christmas. Juggling a crazy father, an impressionable kid brother and a growing romance, Nonnie has to redefine her own meaning of family releases on the 17th of November 2017.
For the full Box Office report visit the NFVF website, https://goo.gl/r7qWkg
Released on Behalf of the National Film and Video Foundation
CONTACT DETAILS FOR MEDIA QUERIES
Contact Person:
Peter Kwele
Head of Marketing and Communications
Tel: +27 11 483 0880
www.nfvf.co.za
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