Film critics around the world love it, and so does the US box office.
This weekend, District 9, the pretty much ignored, low budget – by Hollywood standards, sci-fi movie was #1 at the US box office with US$37 million in ticket sales, ahead of GI Joe: The Rise of the Cobra (US$22.5 million), and The Time Travellers Wife (US$19 million).
I wrote about Peter Jackson and the amazing Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 and earlier short films, at the beginning of May 2009 – and predicted it would be the sleeper sensation of the year. Happily it seems I was right.
District 9 is an amazing social yarn – gritty and gory, but a great story that raises lots of ‘real world’ questions about our treatment of refugees and minorities, and the role of governments and the UN, amongst others.
What’s really terrific is that the movie has achieved its accolades with virtually no mainstream hype, but good on Sony Pictures – they got the distribution rights to the movie and created a cool, quirky advertising campaign that included street posters, billboards and bus ads, asking people to call a toll-free number to report nonhuman activity. Also, check out the campaign website!
Apparently this resulted in thousands of calls.
Congrats to Neill Blomkamp, Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor and the special effects wizards at Weta Workshop for another amazing cinematic experience!