South Africa’s box office: John Wick can’t hold candle to Kong

John Wick: Chapter Two (review) may have 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, but you know what it doesn’t have? A giant gorilla and a spot at number one. Because when there’s a fight between a 50 foot ape and Keanu Reeves, I know who my money’s on. This weekend, Kong: Skull Island (review) held on to its top spot for the second week in a row, preventing John Wick from clinching that coveted first place debut. But how did the other films fare this weekend? (17 to 19 March)

Logan: The Wolverine (review) fell two places to number four, tumbling passed the Film Who Can’t Be Moved Keeping Up with the Kandasamy’s. The South African-made family comedy has held tight to third place for three weeks now, watching as blockbusters like The Great Wall, Fifty Shades Darker and Logan ran out of stamina. Slow and steady wins the race, I guess.

The Great Wall crumbled this week, dropping from seventh place all the way off the chart. Fifty Shades Darker, however, proved it has real stamina, placing only sixth on its sixth week on the chart.

Last week I declared two South African films a rarity on the top 10 chart, but this week I’m eating my hat. Jagveld — Deon Meyer’s thriller — enters the mix in seventh along with Kalushi (review) in eighth.

It’s time to pop bottles, South Africa: three South African films are doing well at the box office, and not one of them is an Afrikaans romcom. This is what progress looks like.

This week also saw box office resurrections, as The Lego Batman Movie and Hidden Figures rose from the dead as a final salute to South African viewers. Hidden Figures moved up one spot from tenth to ninth, and The Lego Batman Movie zombie-crawled its way to tenth.

Here are ten most-watched movies in SA this past weekend:

1. Kong: Skull Island (Incl. 3D,4DX & Imax)
2. John Wick: Chapter Two
3. Keeping Up with the Kandasamys
4. Logan: The Wolverine (Incl. 4DX & Imax)
5. Rock Dog (incl. 3D)
6. Fifty Shades Darker
7. Jagveld
8. Kalushi
9. Hidden Figures
10. The Lego Batman Movie (incl. 3D & 4DX)

All stats were provided by Ster Kinekor Entertainment.