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Cape Town - Ster-Kinekor has recorded its biggest box office for a single day in the company’s history on Valentine's Day.
It is not surprising that it was the much anticipated Fifty Shades of Grey movie that tipped the scales for Ster-Kinekor, which surpassed its previous box office record by a whopping 47% on an inflation adjusted basis.
The movie is based on the erotic fiction best-selling novel by British author E.L. James which has sold over 100 million books and has been translated into 52 languages.
It was a day of breaking records for the company, said Ster-Kinekor marketing executive Doug Place in a statement on Sunday.
"In addition to it being the biggest box office for one day, it was also the biggest Valentine’s Day and the busiest Saturday in terms of attendances at our sites countrywide," he said.
READ: No plastic seat covers for Fifty Shades of Grey
“Whilst Fifty Shades of Grey certainly led the way to these record breaking heights, there were strong box office performances from other titles too on the Ster-Kinekor circuit. In second place yesterday was the family favourite SpongeBob SquarePants, and behind that was Kingsman: The Secret Service, for those who preferred a different kind of 'action' on the big screen on Valentine's Day."
Place noted that the majority of bookings on Saturday were made by users of the SK App. He added that extra screens throughout the day had to be opened, with one at Brooklyn Mall in Pretoria being opened at 23:50 PM.
The local distributor for the Fifty Shades of Grey, UIP South Africa, is expecting over R25m for the cinema run of the movie, according to marketing manager Stefan Rheeder. The movie has whipped up much hype with satirical website Waterford Whisper News claiming that some cinemas covered theatre seats with plastic covers. This is not the case in South Africa, movie houses Ster-Kinekor and Nu Metro, told Health24.
Fifty Shades of Grey is the second in a series of major titles that are expected to make 2015 the biggest box office year in cinema history.
The coming months will see the release of Furious 7 in March, The Avengers 2: Age of Altron in April, the new Minions movie in July and the Bond film Spectre and the return of Star Wars in December.
* Read more on Fifty Shades of Grey on Channel24
