Animated feature “Adventures in Zambezia” flies high at the box office as it becomes the highest grossing South African film of the last 30 years.
Beverly Hills, CA -- Adventures in Zambezia has become highest grossing South African film over the past 30 years. Not since The Gods Must Be Crazy came out in 1980 has there been a South African film that has touched the hearts and funny bones of audiences worldwide the way Zambezia has.
Triggerfish Animation’s highly successful film was recently sold to France’s heavy weight distributor Metropolitan Films who signed up for both Adventures in Zambezia and Triggerfish’s next feature Khumba. Among the other final territories to be licensed on Zambezia were Spain which went to Big Pictures and Hungary which was acquired by ADS Services.
Zambezia has been flying high at the box office and strong word of mouth has led to bigger numbers in its second week in release allowing it to outperform other high profile animated features in a number of territories:
- In Poland, Kinoswiat opened the film with 160 prints onFebruary 1st. The film took off with a respectable # 3 atthe box office but then climbed to #2 in its second week before landing at#3 again for its 3rd week... total box office to date is US$2,692,190 with a US$ 3 million total looking very likely... film hasoutperformed Wreck-It-Ralph, HotelTransylvania, Paranorman, Sammy’s Adventure 2 and Niko 2.
- In the Benelux Entertainment One opened February 6th at #5 with over US$ 300,000 then climbed to #3 in its second week with anincrease of +46% over its first weekend and is now perched at overUS$ 1.8 million in box office. According to distributorEntertainment One, the film is on its way to fly above Hotel Transylvania as well as Rise of the Guardians.
- In Russia, where Bazelevs and All Media jointlydistributed, the film opened #4 at the box office and then climbed to #2the following week with an increase of +15.5% over its opening weekend...it was a total of 5 weeks in the Russian top 10 and has grossed over US$5.6 million outperforming a number of recently released Animated Filmsincluding Paranorman.
- In S. Korea, distributor Bloomage racked in almost400,000 in tickets shortly after the Christmas Holidays. Openingweekend the film did $576,000 and has now totaled over US$ 3 milliondollars in box-office.
- In Portugal, newly formed distributor Outsider Filmshas kept the film in the top 10 for 8 weeks cracking the 100,000admissions mark this week translating into $714,980 in box office.
- In South Africa , Nu Metro garnered over 8.25 millionRand which depending on the currency exchange rate nearly hits the US$ 1million dollar mark and a solid success in its home turf.
- In Israel which was the first territory to open thefilm theatrically summer 2012 the film was the #1 Independent Animatedfilm of the year. In its 12 weeks at the box office the film grossed over$ 750,000.
Triggerfish Animation Studios’ Adventures in Zambezia - 3D features the voice talents of Jeremy Suarez Brother Bear & King of the Hill, star of Little Miss Sunshine, Abigail Breslin; Jeff Goldblum The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou & Jurassic Park, Leonard Nimoy of Transformers: Dark of the Moon & Star Trek, and Samuel L. Jackson Django Unchained and Captain America: The First Avenger, in addition to the voice talents of Richard E. Grant Corpse Bride & Dracula, Jim Cummings The Princess and the Frog, The Lion King &Winnie the Pooh, and Jenifer Lewis The Princess and the Frog & Cars.
The animated feature is directed by Wayne Thornley and executive produced by Greg and Claire Becker, Mace Neufeld (Invictus, The Hunt for Red October), Edward Noeltner of Cinema Management Group, Peter Graham and Steven Hayes of 120 db films and produced by Stuart Forrest, James Middleton, Anthony Silverston and Mike Buckland of Triggerfish Animation.
Zambezia is a bird city and breeding sanctuary in the heart of Africa, led by wise and battle-tested Sekhuru (Nimoy). The film follows Kai (Suarez), who leaves his remote outpost against his father's (Jackson) wishes to join the prestigious Hurricane defense flyers fiercely trained by Ajax (Goldblum) to patrol the skies keeping Zambezia safe. Kai's father goes after him but is captured as the scheming iguana lizard Budzo (Cummings) conspires to attack the sanctuary. Kai and soul mate Zoe (Breslin) find themselves in the middle of Budzo’s deadly plot and need to gather all their flying skills along with a big dose of diplomacy to save the city.
Source: Cinema Management Group
