Any one who is an ardent reader of my articles here on Ghbase.com and follows me on Social media, would know I am a movie freak. I love movies so much that, I watch one everyday and like to spend my weekends, watching Blockbusters at the Silverbirds.
My job as a blogger is quite an interesting one and have had the opportunity to be at almost all of the major premiere of Ghanian movies in the country. Each time, a new movie, is out I try as much as I can to find out the budget for the movie and how much the movie made after it’s premiere but producers have always avoided giving me that info for reasons, that no one talks about their budget and blah blah blah.
Fair enough, we understand our movie industry is very small and some people even opine that, there is no movie industry in Ghana and I do understand them but then, take it or leave, there is a movie industry in Ghana, the only problem is that it is rather too small and we all hope it gets better.
For it to be better, producers must give more details, on what they have to go through to produce a movie and even the challenge of getting people to come to the premiere. I promise to write more on issues in our invisible movie industry in the coming year.
This year alone, several movies were released from Kumawood and Ghallywood as well as other local language movies from the North. I had wanted to write about the budgets of all the movies released this year and how much each actor/actress was paid plus how much revenue the movie made after been premiered and sold but no producer wants to give out that detail to Chris or say the media.
I was able to put pressure on the producer of “Kalybos In China” Kofi Asamoah to give me the budget for the movie and how much the movie made. It must be noted that, “Kaybos In China” and “I Do” produced by Kafui Danku are by far the biggest movies in 2015 and have had the most successful premiere this year. ( I would bring you the Top 5 Movies in 2015 tomorrow)
Kofi Asamoah, producer for Kalybos in China, was reluctant in disclosing his budget to me at first, but upon persistent demands, he finally disclosed it to me.
So how much was spent on Making Kalybos in China?
The budget for Kalybos in China was $23,000. The producer did not give me the components of these budgets, so I wouldn’t want to break it down into my own understanding of what this budget entails, The composition ranges from every movie. But ideally, we know for a fact, it would include, cost of paying all the cast, crew, renting of equipments, location, travel and food, wardrobe, director’s charge, publicity, etc.
Is the budget low?
Well, looking at the movie, the budget seems appropriate considering the fact, the makers of the film are already film students and had some of the equipment already and so wouldn’t spend much on renting of other equipment. The other big names featured in the movie like John Dumelo, Christabel Ekeh, Master Richard, David Dontoh and others might have done it for free or perhaps just take something small. So for the nature of the movie, the budget is appropriate ( we are not Hollywood)
How much did the movie make?
The producer disclosed that, the movie made $20,000 on it’s first premiere and made $7000 at it’s international premiere in the UK and subsequent showings at the Silverbirds
This month December, they have managed to premiere the movie in France, Italy, Belgium and even Germany. I don’t know how much, they have made from those premieres yet. Then the movie was premiered across the whole of Ghana in all of the regions, if am not wrong. Now that earned them some Ghc19,000.
Did they make Profit?
Well, yes, they made lots of profit. The “Kalybos In China” could be ranked the biggest movie to rake in that much in Box Office in 2015.
I had wanted to convert the dollars to Ghana cedis, but I could be using the wrong rates, but just so people have a fair idea, I would use the rate of $1=3.8ghc, just for some fair analysis.
So, it cost Ghc87,400 to produce the movie “Kalybos In China” and they made a revenue of Ghc121,600. So if I should take the cost of making the movie from the revenue, then it would be left with Ghc34,200.
So there you have it. At least we have a fair idea of how much it cost the producer to make the movie and how much he made back as profit. It must be noted that, these value does not include, revenue from their recent premieres on their ongoing Europe tour. If things, so well, they can be making between $15000-$20,000 from the Europe Premieres.
Drop your comments in the comment box below and just incase, you are a movie producer and want to communicate with me, just send an email to chris@ghbase.com. Thank You.