Producers make N280m from Half of a Yellow Sun

TO HIT CINEMAS IN NIGERIA AUGUST 1, 2014

The movie, Half of a Yellow Sun has raked in N280 million since it was released for public audience worldwide. That is part of N1.7 billion expected from the blockbuster as investment. The revenue came from cinema release, TV sales rights, online and in-flight viewing. The movie which generated a lot of public debate after its release was delayed by National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) for ten weeks will hit cinemas across Nigeria starting from Friday, August 1, 2014.
According to the producers, HOAYS will be shown in 17 cinemas across Nigeria (The Filmhouse Cinemas Surulere, Lagos, Ozone Cinemas, Yaba, Lagos, Silverbird Entertainment Centres, Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Genesis Deluxe Cinemas, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Rivers and others).
The tickets have been pegged at N1,000 and N1,500. The journey of Half of a yellow Sun to cinemas has not been all rosy, as the NFVCB refused to classify the movie in a move that some people felt was political while the body insisted that some aspects of the movie could incite religious unrest. After a lot of meetings, intrigues and public outcry which attracted international attention the NFVCB eventually classified the movie and gave the go ahead for a cinema release.
The movie which had been released in the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand has so far generated over £1 million and is expected to set a new box office record in Nigeria. Keen watchers are interested to see if HOAYS will beat the Box 0ffice record of over N100 million set by Avengers.
In a statement released by the production team of the movie, there is high expectation on the film doing well in cinemas inspite of the initial delay its certification suffered.
“The whole team has high expectations for the movie. We won’t like to get into calling figures but the whole team working on HOAYS have high expectations for the movie as it’s set for the August 1, 2014 release. This is unarguably the biggest movie, in terms of investment, produced from Nigeria. The expectations will be naturally high, we hope for the best and believe this should open the industry up for more investment and opportunities.”
Half of a Yellow Sun, is set in the time of the Biafra war and is the story of love, hate, lust, greed, jealousy and forgiveness. The movie features British-Nigerian BAFTA award winner and Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor, BAFTA award winner Thandie Newton and other A-list actors, including super star actress, Genevieve Nnaji. The movie would be distributed in Nigeria by FilmOne Distribution.

– FOLUSO SAMUEL