Superhero movies dominated the local box office in South Africa in the first half of the year, while locally produced content continued to show an upwards trend.
According to the latest South African Box Office Report published by the National Film and Video Foundation, revenue generated by locally-made films increased 43% to R33 million in the first half of 2014, from R23 million in the same period in 2013.
The report showed that 12 of 111 films released during the reporting period were produced locally, up 20% from 10 titles in 2013. A large share of the 111 titles were distributed by Ster Kinekor (47), and Times Media (39).
The Amazing Spider Man 2 took top honours as the country’s biggest earner, with R21.8-million, followed by Rio 2 at R21.1-million, and and X-Men: Days of Future Past, with R16.9-million.
Top 10 International releases in SA
| # | Movie | Gross |
| 1 | Amazing Spider-Man 2 | R21,829,778 |
| 2 | Rio 2 | R21,180,353 |
| 3 | X-Men: Days of Future Past | R16,945,499 |
| 4 | The Other Woman | R15,728,212 |
| 5 | Captain America: The Winter Soldier | R14,589,470 |
| 6 | Noah | R13,617,735 |
| 7 | Need For Speed | R13,881,947 |
| 8 | Wolf of Wall Street | R12,057,290 |
| 9 | 300: Rise of an Empire | R10,672,957 |
| 10 | Lego Movie | R9,942,802 |
To put the figures into perspective, according to BoxOffice.com the Amazing Spider-Man 2 grossed a total $202.8 million (R2.16 billion) in the USA alone – with a world-wide haul of $708.2 million (R7.5 billion).
This means South Africa’s take accounts for less than 0.3% of the total taking for the title.
Local releases
Pad Na Jou Hart topped the list for South African film, grossing more than R11-million.
Overall gross revenue at South Africa’s cinema’s however, declined by 6%, to R382 million, between the first half of 2013 and the first half of 2014.
In the first half of 2014,local productions accounted for 9% of total gross revenue, up from 5% in the prior reporting period.
South Africa generated revenues of more than R879 million in 2013 for the 204 films shown at box office.
Locally produced films increased from 19 in 2012 to 25 in 2013 generating revenues of more than R98 million putting SA’s box office share at 11%.
Top 10 South African releases in SA
| # | Movie | Gross |
| 1 | Pad na jou Hart | R11,597,209 |
| 2 | Faan se Trein | R7,158,787 |
| 3 | Vrou Soek Boer | R5,458,669 |
| 4 | Konfetti | R2,558,221 |
| 5 | iNumber Number | R1,894,755 |
| 6 | Agent 2000 | R1,206,764 |
| 7 | The Perfect Wave | R1,175,776 |
| 8 | Die Windpomp | R715,964 |
| 9 | Ek Joke Net 2 | R695,897 |
| 10 | Four Corners | R383,615 |
In terms of earnings by genre, Animation was the highest grossing genre with R72 million.
Titles that contributed to this upsurge was RIO 2, The Lego Movie and Mr. Peabody & Sherman.
Action/Adventure grossed R70 million; and Drama took the third place with R59 million.
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