South African weekend box office – Birds can’t beat the Boys

It was the battle of the Birds and the Boys at the SA box office this weekend past, and unlike over in the US, the Birds lost down here. With a meagre debut of just under R1.9 million, Birds of Prey had to settle for second place. The DC Comics movie has been underperforming worldwide, despite its critical acclaim, resulting in Warner Bros. now even changing its title to try to garner interest. It’s too late for those all-important opening weekend box office numbers though.

This means that Bad Boys for Life is once again the South African box office champ for the third weekend running. The Will Smith and Martin Lawrence-led action-comedy sequel added another R4.5 million to its coffers to bring its local total to a respectable R33.2 million. Jumanji: The Next Level, which just can’t seem to stop making money locally, rounds out the top three with another R1 million after dropping just a minuscule 5% since last weekend. The Dwayne Johnson-led fantasy adventure is the highest earner currently on the chart (where it’s been for 9 weeks) with R66.9 million.

There were really only two noteworthy mentions on the charts. The first was the other newcomer of the weekend in Taika Waititi’s Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit. The satirical comedy set in Nazi Germany about a boy and his imaginary friend (Waititi himself playing an absurd version of Hitler) got a very limited opening in just 13 cinemas, so as expected it barely made a blip. However, the film’s R270k earnings actually gave it the second-highest per theatre average on the charts, with only Bad Boys for Life doing better.

The second noteworthy mention was animated family adventure Spies in Disguise (which also stars Will Smith) which got an unexpected boost despite being on the charts for nearly two months now. It wasn’t a big boost, just 5%, but it’s still odd as it was on its way out.

Let’s see what the rest of the SA box office chart looks like:

NE = New Entry

Last Updated: February 18, 2020