(”Come back later, I’m busy having sex with a Nigerian.”)
The Nigerian government is asking its cinema owners not to show District 9, which they say portrays Nigerians in a negative light.
“We feel very bad about this because the film clearly denigrated Nigeria’s image by portraying us as if we are cannibals, we are criminals,” said Information Minister Dora Akunyili. “The name our former president was clearly spelt out as the head of the criminal gang [The Malawian actor, Eugene Khumbanyiwa, plays a gang leader with the nickname of Obasanjo, also the surname of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.] and our ladies shown like prostitutes sleeping with extra-terrestrial beings.”
But Mr Khumbanyiwa said Nigerians in the cast did not seem worried by the portrayal of their country. He suggested that the film, which depicts people wanting to eat aliens to gain the superhuman powers, should not be taken too literally. “It’s a story, you know,” he said. “It’s not like Nigerians do eat aliens. Aliens don’t even exist in the first place.” [BBC]
What the reporters don’t tell you is that Khumbanyiwa was pantomiming alien sex and laughing when he said that. In fact, in Malawi, sex involving an anal probe is commonly known as doing it “Nigerian-style.” Which Nigerians are none too pleased about. For perpetuating the stereotype, they say District 9 director Neill Blomkamp is now Nigeria’s public enemy number 2, just behind JuJu, the goat who causes miscarriages.
Okay, fess up: do you know anyone who saw The Final Destination this weekend? I know a few people (biblically, boosh), and I’m pretty sure no one I know saw it. Yet it made almost $30 million and was number one at the box office this weekend. Which leads me to believe there’s a giant underground city out there somewhere full of three million toothless Final Destination-loving yokels. Now there’s your horror movie plot. Wait, no — chick with huge tits discovers underground yokel city. There, now it’s perfect. Pay me. ADDITIONAL FUN FACT: This week’s number one was originally slated for home video release. That’s right, some movie execs actually overestimated the country’s intelligence level. That’s it, I’m buying a helmet.
Elsewhere, Nikki Finke writes:
But even Hollywood is embarrassed by the fact that this weekend’s Top 4 competing films featuring horror, death, gore, mayhem, war, Nazis, aliens, and sci-fi all did so well at the box office. “What a sad statement on movie-going humanity,” a top studio exec emailed me. “And let’s look at the ratings for the top 4 movies at the box office tonight: ‘R’, ‘R’, ‘R’, and ‘R’. Yikes.”
Oh please. Hollywood is embarrassed about Nazis now? They make a new Holocaust movie every two weeks. Or does it not count as a Nazi movie if there’s also a pianist with Bell’s Palsy? And aside from Final D and H2, Inglourious Basterds and District 9 clocked in at number two and four, and both of those are clearly films aimed at literate adults, which is about the best we can hope for in the age of G-Force and Paul Blart. But I can see how the success of challenging, auteur-driven, R-rated flicks might be scary to someone who spends all day preparing Venn diagrams about Kevin James talking to zoo animals. Dear “top studio exec”: F yourself. F yourself in your huge vagina.
(This is gonna be a hell of a bris)
Inglourious Basterds predictably took the top spot with $37.6 million, but unpredictably took in quite a bit more than expected and earned Quentin Tarantino his biggest international opening weekend so far, according to Nikke Finke. The film has already earned back approximately half of it’s budget. I kind of wish I didn’t want to see this movie, so I could recycle my own joke and say, “I can’t wait to nazi this.”
District 9 dropped almost 50% in it’s second week, earning $18.9 million. It has now grossed 2.5 times its original budget. G.I. Joe dropped 44% in its third week, taking in $12.5 million. It’s now earned back almost 70% of its budget. I kind of want to see this in the cheap theater so I can feel like Luke Wilson in Idiocracy. I’ll just feast my eyes at the human panoply surrounding me and then raise my fists and yell, “I am the king of the windowlickers! Bring me shiny things and gobstoppers, peasants!”
Among the other films opening last weekend, Shorts opened at #6 with $6.6 million, Post Grad was #10 with $2.8 million, and My One and Only opened on four screens with a per screen average of $15,175. IFC sent Five Minutes of Heaven to only one theater last weekend, where it earned $5,200. Liam Neeson reportedly called IFC’s receptionist to leave a message: If you send my film to more screens next weekend, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.
(full top 10 below)
Since District 9 made back it’s entire budget and then some in its opening weekend, and the film had a relatively open ending [much like Zac Ephron, ZING!], it should come as no surprise that a sequel may be forthcoming. To read more about it, you can check out filmschoolrejects (possible spoilers in article).
The video below is Alive In Joburg, the 6-minute film District 9 was based on, both from the same director (Neill Blomkamp). More of his short films are available at buzzfeed. I’m not saying I’d drink Neill’s bathwater or anything, but he’s pretty cool, I guess. It’s whatever.
*continues writing ”Mr. Robo Blomkamp” in purple glitter ink inside Lisa Frank trapper keeper*
District 9, which cost $30 million to make, earned the top spot at the box office last weekend with $37 million. Here’s the story behind this surprise hit and most-tweeted topic on Friday (la dee da) via Nikke Finke:
District 9 director Neill Blomkamp was supposed to be Peter Jackson’s helmer on Halo, which went down in flames. But Peter and his partner Fran Walsh kept Neill in New Zealand to develop his short film, Alive In Joburg. Jackson then turned it into a hard-cover faux graphic novel. That book went to Peter’s longtime manager Ken Kamins to arrange financing and set it up as a film. Ken made the decision to go indie, [...]. The result is not just another Amy Pascal pic starring Adam or Will but, according to the 88% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, an imaginative, creative, cutting-edge pic made outside the studio system.
That’s right. Another graphic-novel-turned-movie. Oh well, at least it wasn’t a gum wrapper or a board game.
G.I. Joe, predictably dropped about 60% in its second week to take the #2 spot with $22.5 million. The Time Traveler’s Wife took third place with a disappointing $19.2 million weekend (the studio expected at least $25 million).
Among the other films opening last weekend, The Goods opened at #6 with $5.35 million. Bandslam took 13th place with $2.25 million, earning only $1,061 per screen (ha ha). Ponyo opened at #9 with $3.5 million. It Might Get Loud made $14,429 per screen in limited release. (full top 10 below)
