Half of a Yellow Sun Breaks Nigerian Box Office Record In Its First Weekend

Half of a Yellow Sun’ has set a new first weekend box office record in Nigeria. The record came from showing the movie in 15 cinemas across Nigeria in its first 3 days, with Lagos cinemas topping the charts.

‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ is expected to also break the record of the highest grossing movie in Nigeria, being the country of the author of the book, and the director and executive producers of the movie.

Half of a Yellow Sun is at the number one spot in Nigerian cinemas, ahead of Marvel Studio’s ‘Guardian of Galaxy’. The movie has been able to surpass other box office trailblazers like Last Flight to Abuja (N8.35Million), Phone Swap (N3.72Million), Maami (N3.30Million), and The Return of Jennifer (N10Million).

According to Mr. Kene Mkparu C.E.O of FilmOne Distribution, the distributors of the movie “we have always maintained that the success of ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ is the success of Nollywood. If ‘Half of a YellowSun’ succeeds and from the figures we have, it will succeed, it signifies success for Nollywood. It is our belief that if a film is well done, Nigerian audiences would respond to it and drive its success. ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ is a movie about Nigeria and we believe that Nigerians will drive its success. We are delighted that the Nigerian public has turned out in force to support the film. We want to urge everyone who has seen this film to go back and see it again and encourage others to see it.”

‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ is a movie set in the era of the Biafran war in Nigeria. It is a story of love, lust, jealousy, greed and brings to light the effects of war on the lives of everyone it touches.

The movie, featuring BAFTA award winner and Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor, BAFTA award winner Thandie Newton,Onyeka Onwenu, Genevieve Nnaji, O.C. Ukeje, and Zack Orji, is adapted from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s award-winning international best-seller, and is written and directed by Biyi Bandele.

‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ has been screened at film festivals around the world, has already won several awards, and has been enjoying an international cinema release in major international territories including the UK, US and Australia, with releases across Africa, Latin America and Europe still to come.

The movie opened in Nigerian cinemas on 1st August.