Leon Schuster’s brand-new movie, Mad Buddies,has grossed over R4.5 million at the box office in its opening weekend nationwide.
According to Channel24, the blockbuster has shattered Schuster’s previous box office records.Mad Buddies is currently one of the top five highest grossing movies in SA, yet Schuster could lose millions in revenue after a man was arrested forpirating the film in Johannesburg.
The movie was released in Soweto. According toScreen Africa, a man was found filming the movie with a camcorder. He was arrested and is said to work with a syndicate, which is believed to have released pirate DVDs of the movie last week.
This is the second incident of piracy involving Schuster’s film after another man was spotted bySter-Kinekor staff using a camcorder during the movie. He fled before staffers could apprehend him.
Schuster expressed dismay at the attempted piracy. He told Independent newspapers much effort had gone into writing and producing Mad Buddies. Schuster recalled how one of his films, Mama Jack, lost millions as a result of piracy. He said although R26 million was made from the movie, it was enough to cover the film’s production costs only.
“All I can do is to appeal to people not to buy these pirate DVDs. It’s unethical, it’s wrong to buy these DVDs, but people do it because they don’t see it the way the filmmaker does,” Schuster said.
Despite the piracy overshadowing the movie’s release Schuster urged the public to watch the comedy. Movie-goers can expect Schuster’s usual brand of slapstick comedy set in a local context. It stars Schuster, Tanit Phoenix, Alfred Ntombela and Kenneth Nkosi.
