The Oscars success seen in Charlize Theron and theTsotsimovie alongside Sharlto Copley’s eye behind the lens ofDistrict 9has come to define expectations for the South African film industry. However, our recent export making waves isDavid, a retelling of the biblical story of the eponymous character who thwarted Goliath. During the big December season, the movie outperformed several heavyweights includingAvatar: Fire and Ash, James Cameron’s box office hit Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried’sThe Housemaidand theSpongeBobmovie Released over 3,000 screens,Davidgrossed $22m (R362m) at the weekend domestic box office.
This is the biggest three-day opening in Angel Studios’ history, surpassing evenSound of Freedom, which went on to gross more than $250m (R4.1bn) globally. This is the highest grossing opening weekend ever in the US for a faith-based animated film, besting Oscar-winningThe Prince of Egypt. This was also the best opening for a South African film in North America sinceDistrict 9in 2009.
Brent Dawes, writer and co-director of the animated film, credited the success of the franchise to a growing interest in faith-based entertainment. Because there hasn’t been enough budgets for them, Dawes said the audience needs to be catered to. “WithDavidwe set out to make a great movie.
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Yes, it is a faith-based story, but it is also a great story,” he said. Dawes and his partner Phil Cunningham co-directed the musical epic. Both were born in Zimbabwe and are based in Cape Town.
They led more than 400 local and international artists and crew, in-house at Sunrise’s studio in Noordhoek and working remotely across 32 countries. Dawes said it might be a success for South Africa’s pre-production industry but they made the movie to reach as broad an audience as possible. “Being set in ancient Israel, where possible we cast actors with authentic Israeli accents and if we couldn’t find the right person for the role with that criteria we allowed for a standard American accent.” Dawes said they plan to tell more faith-based stories, but as recent reports have suggested the growing interest in Christianity among boys in the US has been attributed to androcentrism, is there space for women-led projects?
“The short answer is yes. The long answer is confidential,” Dawes said, laughing. “What we have found is that in the last decade or two there have a been a lot of movies that champion young women.Frozen, Moana, Wish, Raya, Encanto, Tangledand a lot more. Those aren’t necessarily rooted in a faith-based narrative, but there are a lot of strong female characters being represented, less so on the boy front.”
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