Schuster movie rakes in million of rands

That's over R20 million to be exact. Yep, if you were ever in doubt about who is South African's biggest film star then now you know — it is Leon Schuster. His latest movie, Mad Buddies, continues to light up the box office earnings.

After four weeks of being released Mad Buddies was in third spot in the Top 10 at the South African box office for the weekend of 13 to 15 July. It made R1.9 million over that weekend bringing its total earning to R20.4 million.

I do not know whether to be excited about this or not. The fact that a South African filmmaker is able to compete head on with the big budget Hollywood movies at our cinemas is something commendable.

However, that glory is enjoyed by only Leon, which makes the feet a bit bitter-sweet. Let's face it these Schuster movies are nothing to write home about. The acting is lacklustre and the comedy is predictable.

Is that what South Africans find entertaining? What does that say about the future of serious actors and filmmaking in this country?

Then again, South African storytellers can be so depressing. How many times can you push this PSA-like storylines about Aids, Apartheid and hard township life?

We see the suffering everyday on our news bulletins and our soapies are just as preachy, do we really wanna spend our weekends at the cinema reliving all that misery? Hell no! Slap-stick comedy is benefiting from that need for some escapism.

We all know that South African actors are very secretive about their earnings. In fact it is considered a somewhat blasphemous to talk about salaries amongst actors, so I'm going to go on a limb here and ask how much the actors in the Schuster movies are making?

Are they reaping the same financial rewards as Schuster's company when his movies amass this staggering wealth? 

Kenneth Nkosi is billed as a star on this movie alongside Schuster, did he atleast get a sizeable paycheque out of this?

Anyway, congratulations to Mr Schuster for yet another box office gold!!