Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom' Biopic Opens At No. 1 In South Africa

‘Mandela’ Biopic Opens At No. 1 In South Africa

Via Page Six:

After Bono and Anna Wintour co-hosted a New York premiere of the Nelson Mandela biopic “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” the Oscar hopeful opened at No. 1 in the legendary leader’s South Africa. The film, starring Idris Elba, debuted there Thursday and broke records as many reportedly took the day off work to see it. The film made $73,747 on its first day, enough to beat “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” by a 39 percent margin. The film opens across the US on Dec. 25.

According to BBC:

South Africans are flocking to the cinemas to watch a film about their former President, Nelson Mandela. The movie Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, starring British actor Idris Elba, is based on the former political prisoner’s autobiography of the same title and seems to be hitting the right notes.

I went to watch the epic 146-minute film in one of Johannesburg’s busiest economic hubs, Rosebank, and I found very few critics of the film among the general public.

Almost everyone I spoke to expressed their pleasant surprise at how well the film came across. A big thumbs-up for the lead actor, given that he is not South African, let alone not being Xhosa, Mr Mandela’s tribe. Some sang Elba’s praises because they felt that he got the accent right – not exactly like Mr Mandela, but close enough.

Part of the legacy of the apartheid system is that two decades since the introduction of democracy, the minds of South Africans are still very much defined along racial lines. So inevitably I must tell you what the white people thought and what the black majority said.

We are looking forward to seeing when it hits the screens in the U.S. on Christmas Day…