'Get Out' Breaks Records — Not So Much In SA

Forbes has just revealed that Jonathan Peele's film Get Out is now the third-biggest R-rated horror film of all time, behind only Hannibal ($165 million in 2001) and The Exorcist ($232m including reissues). 

Given that we are only in April it is safe to say with its momentum it is likely to pass Hannibal before it’s done. The film is now the highest-grossing original live-action release of 2017, and it will soon pass San Andreas ($155m in 2015) to become the biggest original live-action US domestic hit since Chris Nolan’s Interstellar ($189m in late 2014).

Get Out‘s success is, quite simply, extraordinary. It continues to do things that are generally unheard of for low-budget, early-year releases without big star ... It is the first black writer-director helmed film with a $100-million film debut. It dropped just 15% in its second weekend (most horror films drop around 60%) and was the highest-grossing film in the US for Blumhouse Productions. 

Worldwide it has a gross-to-date taking of $167,595,710 on a $4.5million budget, that's huge and the profit number is still increasing. Its foreign takings from 11 countries as of April 4th is $10,393,010 . 

In South Africa though, the film is not fairing that exceptionally well. It's debut weekend takings were just R596 406.04 from 22 screens — coming in at number 9. With a low R351 776.26 in its second week from 22 screens, a drop to number 11 and a total gross of R1,126,032.06 ... yeah it's early days but we can hardly call it a hit in SA. It is rare that an international film could debut this low and peak above R5mil.

That said, this is a milestone for a low budget film by a black filmmaker and  a huge success worldwide without the big Hollywood machine behind it. That is something worth celebrating.