South African audiences have responded overwhelmingly to Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, resulting in the film opening at number one at the box office on Thursday, out-grossing last Thursday’s opening of the eagerly anticipated Hunger Games: Catching Fire by 39%. Cinemas around the country have reported unprecedented attendances for Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, which translated into the excellent box office performance.
The film was the top earner on the circuits of both major exhibitors Ster Kinekor and NuMetro yesterday, as well as the leading independent cinemas groups, grossing over R750 000 with a massive daily screen average of R8 620. This is a record for a Thursday out of school holidays, especially as the film has four shows compared with six shows for other films.
The manager at the Ster Kinekor cinema in Soweto's Southgate Mall said attendance was abnormally high for a Thursday, as some viewers took the day off work just to make it. Similar feedback has been received from cinemas countrywide.
Producer Anant Singh says: “It is extremely gratifying for us as filmmakers to have our home audience embrace our film and react so positively to it. We are proud that a South African film is competing so well against one of the most anticipated sequels of all time.”
The film opens today in the United States with exclusive engagements in New York and Los Angeles, distributed by The Weinstein Company. The influential New York Times and Los Angeles Times newspapers reviewed the film ahead of its opening, with the New York Times saying, “The performances give a crucial human dimension to this streamlined, panoramic epic” and the Los Angeles Times stating, “inevitably celebratory ... it is one worth experiencing again and again.”
Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom is a Videovision Entertainment release through United International Pictures (South Africa).