In its opening week, the South African thriller iNumber Number earned the No. 6 position on the industry’s Top Ten, alongside Hollywood blockbusters like The Amazing Spider-Man 2. On its opening weekend, 25 to 27 April, the film was at number seven on the top ten for the weekend and has moved up to the number six slot for the week.
The film has earned 38% more than the popular 2008 gangster movie Jerusalema, and has thus far earned 92% more than the 2011 heist movie How to Steal 2 Million. It has also earned 99% of the box office takings raked in by Oscar winner Tsotsi on its opening week in 2005.
“We are all excited to see that local audiences are embracing the film,” says director Donovan Marsh.
Helen Kuun, CEO of Indigenous Film Distribution, which is distributing the film in South Africa, added that “iNumber Number is a high-energy crowd pleaser, and audiences are loving it.”
An action-packed movie, iNumber Number is about a pair of cops battling corrupt colleagues as well as a gang of thieves. Chili (S’dumo Mtshali, winner of Class Act in 2010), and Shoes (Presley Chweneyagae of Tsotsi and State of Violence fame) have been partners in the police force for eight years. After they make a risky arrest, their corrupt superior refuses to give them the reward they are due. Enraged, Chili realises that honesty does not pay and sets about infiltrating a gang of armoured car thieves. The film boasts an oddball cast that brings comic relief to the ruthless thuggery.
iNumber Number is South African director Donovan Marsh’s fourth film. An award-winning director, writer and editor, Marsh has worked in the local film industry since 1992. He wrote and directed the feature films Dollars and White Pipes, Spud and Spud 2: The Madness Continues.
The film had its world premiere at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival in September 2013. It was produced by Marsh, and Quizzical Pictures’ Harriet Gavshon, JP Potgieter and Mariki van der Walt.
