Local weekend box office – Even two Will Smiths can’t beat the Joker

The joke was on Will Smith this weekend past as the Gemini Man failed to dethrone Joker from the top spot on the South African box office chart. The awards-worthy comic book film comfortably stayed in the top spot it claimed the week before as it added another R3.5 million to its total. Joker isn’t exactly setting local box office numbers on fire, but it’s doing pretty well for an R-rated adult drama (that happens to be based on a comic book) which generally doesn’t pull in the South African crowds.

Gemini Man though is exactly the type of move that generally pulls in South African crowds, but the sci-fi actioner – which features Smith also doubling down to play a digitally de-aged version of himself – had a bit of a soft opening with R2.3 million. That was still enough to push it well ahead of the other two newcomers in Zulu Wedding and The Addams Family though, with neither of them able to crack three-quarters of a million Rand. However, it has to be pointed out that local production Zulu Wedding only debuted in 59 cinemas, and thus posted one of the highest per-theatre-averages on the charts.

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

[table ai=”1/No.” class=”table table-striped” tablesorter=”1″]
Movie Name, Weekend gross, Percentage change, Local gross, Last Week’s Position

Joker,R2.3 million,-24%,R.9.7 million,1st

Gemini Man,R2.3.million,NE,R2.3 million,NE

Zulu Wedding,R746 050,NE,R746 050,NE

The Addams Family,R736 963,NE,R736 963,NE

Hustlers,R639 133,-47%,R12.1 million,2nd

Abominable,R581 198,-35%,R4.4 million,3rd

Dora and the Lost City of Gold,R437 476,-35%,R9 million,4th

The Lion King,R360 347,-45%,R119.8 million,5th

Downton Abbey,R312 726,-28%,R3.4 million,7th

The Angry Birds Movie 2,R229 967,-62%,R8.4 million,6th
[/table]

NE = New Entry