Tell Me Sweet Something, a romantic comedy directed and produced
by award-winning Akin Omotoso, has been receiving rave reviews since it opened at
the cinema on 4 September 2015.
Tell Me Sweet Something tells the story of Moratiwa (Nomzamo
Mbatha), an aspiring writer who owns and runs a bookstore in the heart of
Johannesburg. The bookstore, like her love life, is not experiencing much success.
This all changes when she meets and falls in love with the unlikeliest candidate in
the world, Nat (Maps Maponyane), a male model, who has never read a book in his
life and is desperate to be loved for his mind not his body.
Now in its fourth week, Tell Me Sweet Something debuted at number
five at the South African box office, competing against popular international films,
SouthPaw and Fantastic Four. The film was released
on 45 screens (prints), earning R843 589 in revenue in its opening week.
In its second week the film grossed at R646 241, an achievement for a local
romantic comedy, accumulating a total of R1 646 085. This success encouraged
exhibitors to increase the number of cinemas to 47.
However, in its third week the film experienced a decline at the cinema, grossing just R233 785, a decline that has been attributed to the reduction in the number of screens from 47 to 28.
“From the successes of Tell Me Sweet Something, we hope that South
Africans will keep up the momentum, choosing local films when they visit the
cinemas. The box office report constantly points at the lack of support for our local
films, however we hope that the support we’re experiencing with Tell Me
Sweet Something will be the norm and consumers will fill the cinemas to
watch local films,’ says Zama Mkosi, NFVF CEO.
