Aliens Among Us: District 9 Soars to Box Office Glory!

By prawn1 August 17th, 2009

An aliens-among-us story by a first time director has topped the American box office, raking in US$37 million this past weekend!

Helmed by 29-year-old South African born director, Niell Blomkamp, District 9 has no big name stars – in fact, the lead actor (Sharlto Copley) had never acted in a movie before – but that didn’t prevent the film from outgrossing G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra by a whopping USD 14.5 million! District 9 is no slouch in the ratings either, scoring a solid 88% at Rotten Tomatoes.

We South Africans have to wait a bit longer to watch Wikus Van De Merwe and “prawn” friend Christopher Johnson taking the fight to the seedy MNU corporation. District 9 releases officially in local theatres on August 28th, but word is that Joburg will see a premiere screening this Wednesday, August 19th, at the Zone in Rosebank – full details are available at SterKinekor. Canal Walk in Cape Town might be hosting a premiere too, but no details have surfaced as yet. We’ll keep you posted though.

[ Sources: 1 | 2 | 3 ]

BONUS: Vanity Fair had a chat with Sharlto Copley about working on District 9. Read the Q&A HERE.

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2 Comments

District 9 (Reply) on August 20th, 2009

Part of the plot sounds, well familiar. An alien slave ship crashes in the desert. That’s Alien Nation, a movie and (later) TV show from about 20 years ago. But this has a huge twist from Alien Nation. The Newcomers are not assimilated, they are kept in slavery. They look less human. Great idea.
- prawn1 (Reply) on August 20th, 2009
  
  Thanks for the info. I’ll have to look out for Alien Nation at our video store. I’m really looking forward to watching D-9 but it’s still 8 days from release here in South Africa.