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Mad Buddies shatters Schuster record

Cape Town - Leon Schuster's latest comedy release Mad Buddies has broken the South African star's own box office record to take over R4.5m in its opening weekend, despite the threat of piracy.

Mad Buddies, which was released in South Africa on 22 June, gave Schuster his biggest ever three-day opening weekend, beating the likes of Mr Bones 1 and 2, Mama Jack and 2010's smash hit Schuks Tshabalala's Survival Guide to South Africa over the Friday to Sunday opening weekend period.

The movie was able to draw large audiences despite attempts by a number of pirates to record the movie during screenings. On Thursday, a man was caught recording the movie on a hand-held camcorder during a screening at Maponya Mall, in Soweto, Johannesburg.

In the Western Cape, two people were arrested at Parow Mall, in Parow, Cape Town, and at the Promenade Mall, in Mitchells Plain, for allegedly trying to record the movie with a camcorder.

Charlize Theron

"These guys are murderers - they're killing our film industry," Schuster told The Star newspaper in response to the incidents, which have been taken to court.

However, the impressive opening weekend numbers for Mad Buddies could not unseat the animated sequel Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted from the top spot. It held firm at No 1 with a R4.8m haul in its second week on circuit. This figure nearly equalled the Dreamworks movie's opening weekend tally of R4.9m.

The SA box office this week also features two films starring South African Oscar winner Charlize Theron. Snow White and the Huntsman is at No 3 after taking R1.2m in its fourth week on circuit. Theron's most recent hit, the Ridley Scott sci-fi epic Prometheus, is at No 6 after taking in over R4.5m in SA over three weeks.

Mad Buddies, Schuster's 14th big screen release, tells the story of sworn enemies, Boetie (Schuster) and Beast, played by Kenneth Nkosi, who are forced to embark on a road trip as unwitting subjects of a new TV reality show, devised by a sexy and devious TV producer, played by Tanit Phoenix.

On camera, with the whole of South Africa in on the joke, the pair comes unstuck at every stage of this hilarious journey until they discover that they have been conned and join forces to exact revenge.

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