Ster-Kinekor has announced on Sunday, 15 Feb that it achieved its biggest box office for a single day in the company’s recorded history (since 1995). The recorded sales for 15 Feb 2015 smashed the company’s previous best box office day by a massive 47% on an inflation adjusted basis.
Now when it comes to overall all sales, in SA shores, the film brought in over R14 million in just four days, making it the most lucrative movie opening in South African history.
Internationally, the film has managed to bring in over $158 million (almost R2 billion) since it opened on Friday, tvplus reported.
The reason: the Valentine’s Day screenings of the much-hyped Fifty Shades of Grey.
“In fact,” says Doug Place, Marketing Executive of Ster-Kinekor Theatres, “it was a day of breaking records for the company. In addition to it being the biggest box office for one day, it was also the biggest Valentine’s Day and the busiest Saturday in terms of attendances at our sites countrywide, beating the previous record by 14%.”
The majority of bookings for yesterday’s screenings were made by users of the SK App, one of South Africa’s most downloaded apps, which also resulted in it being the most pre-booked day in Ster-Kinekor’s history.
“Whilst Fifty Shades of Grey certainly led the way to these record breaking heights, there were strong box office performances from other titles too on the Ster-Kinekor circuit. In second place yesterday was the family favourite SpongeBob SquarePants, and behind that was Kingsman: The Secret Service, for those who preferred a different kind of ‘action’ on the big screen on Valentine’s Day.
“We opened extra screens throughout the day yesterday, in an attempt to keep up with the ongoing demand for the hottest cinema ticket in town. In fact, we opened up a screen at Brooklyn Mall in Pretoria at 23:50 last night to satisfy the late-night lovers on the most romantic day of the year!” states Doug Place, Marketing Executive of Ster-Kinekor Theatres.
“In addition to the ‘Girlfriends’ Getaway’ pre-screening on 12 February, ticket sales for the 14th of February screenings have now also broken all manner of records for Ster-Kinekor as couples rushed to book for Valentine’s Day. The ‘love seats’ in our luxurious Cine Prestige theatres were the first to be sold out, as these proved to be the perfect answer to the perfect date night on the year’s most romantic day!” comments Place.
“Fifty Shades of Grey is the second in a series of major titles that are expected to make 2015 the biggest box office year in cinema history. The first was Taken 3, which released in both commercial and IMAX cinemas in January this year.
“These two titles will be followed, in the coming months, with the much-anticipated release of Furious 7 (27 March), The Avengers 2: Age of Altron (24 April), the new Minions movie (10 July), Spectre (new Bond film) and the eagerly-awaited return of Star Wars to the big screen in December,” concludes Place.
