For the South African cinema industry 2015 was a remarkable year for theatrical
releases, as revealed in the annual National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) box
office report.
Gross box office saw an impressive growth of 36 per cent, even though there was a
price hike on cinema tickets by exhibitors. Cinemas in South Africa saw price
increases, with Ster-Kinekor and Times Media implementing an increment every
year due to economic instabilities.
Box office revenues recorded a solid upward trend with gross theatrical earnings
adding up to R1.198 billion in 2015. This was due to popular releases of films such
as Fast & Furious 7, which was the top earner grossing R89.9 million and Star Wars, which was the second highest grossing film taking R51.5 million for the eight weeks it was on circuit. Minions, which grossed R50
million in 12 weeks, was amongst the top earning films.
Locally produced films performed significantly well, a total of 22 local films were
released with a box office earning of R69.2 million, which accounted for 6 per cent
of gross box office earnings. The top three local films that performed well at the box
office were Schuks! Pay Back the Money grossing R17.6 million,
Ballade vir “n Enkeling grossing over R9 million and
Mooirivier which took R7.2 million.
Still on locally produced films, Comedy was the highest grossing genre earning R28
million with only three titles. In second place was Drama earning R22 million with
ten titles released, followed by the Romance genre with four titles taking R13
million of the annual box office revenue.
Multilingual films were the most popular with 14 titles released taking 65 per cent
of the gross R45 million. Afrikaans/English film Schuks! Pay Back the
Money earned R17.6 million (25 per cent). IsiZulu/English language films
earned R4.2 (6 per cent) million, these included the titles Tell Me Sweet
Something, Ayanda and Hear Me Move.
South Africa has become steadily more popular in recent years as an international
filming location. Some of the international feature films shot on location in South
Africa and released in local cinemas are as follows:
• Avengers: Age of Ultron had a few scenes shot in Johannesburg
inner city and Sandton;
• Mad Max Fury Road had scenes shot at the Cape Town film
studios;
• After shooting both District 9 and Elysium in SA,
Neil Blomkamp returned again with Chappie, a science fiction film also
shot in Johannesburg inner city and other parts of Soweto.
A number of local films were well received by the international audience. Local
Afrikaans film Die Windpomp won the Audience Award for Best
Foreign Film at the 2015 Long Beach International Film Festival in New York,
competing against over 50 internationally acclaimed films. Thina Sobabili won the Audience Choice Award at the Pan African Film Festival 2015, which took place in Los Angeles. Miners Shot Down won Best Documentary at the International Emmy Awards and continues to garner international recognition. At the Durban International Film Festival 2015, local drama Necktie Youth won Best South African Feature and the director, Sibs Shongwe-La Mer, won the International Jury Award for Best Director.
The most popular genre in 2015 with the highest earnings was Action, claiming 20
per cent of box office gross (R245 million), a huge improvement from 6 per cent in
the previous period. Action/Adventure was the second highest grossing genre with
17 per cent (same as 2014) and Animation earned 17 per cent (same as 2014).
For the full report, visit the NFVF website.
