Sisters Olanna and Kainene return home to 1960s Nigeria, where they soon diverge on different paths. As civil war breaks out, political events loom larger than their differences as they join the fight to establish an independent republic. It is based upon a book of the same title written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and published in 2006.
Production budget: £4.5million ($8 million) – around 80% of the budget came from Nigerian investors.
Genres: Drama/Romance
Media Ownership
Director: Bivi Bandele
Producer: Andrea Calderwood
Executive Producers: Muhtar Bakare, Gail Egan, Peter Hampden, Norman Merry & Yewande Sadik0u
Production companies:
- Slate Films
- Shareman Media
- British Film Institute (BFI)
- Lipsync Productions
Distribution companies:
- FilmOne Distribution (2013) (Nigeria) (theatrical)
- Leap Frog Films (2013) (Australia) (all media)
- Leap Frog Films (2014) (Australia) (all media)
- Monterey Media (2013) (USA) (all media)
The author of the book on which the film was based, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, was happy about the final product of the film as she thinks it’s beautiful and very well done, She also says the acting is very good and she loves the fact that it was filmed in Nigeria which was her only requirement.
Box Office
Opening Weekend Gross: £1.5 million
Marketing
The marketing of Half of a Yellow Sun varied in its attempts to attract two different types of audience.
Marketing in the form of outdoor media, print and broadcast advertising, and press & PR activity was used to attract older audiences and those who were fans of the original book.
The other audience, that being the black community and the younger and more socially aware, were addressed by marketing in the form of email and text contact lists, flyer ‘shop drops’ in key locations, social media and promotional activity via Black media outlets, which included satellite TV and online radio stations. This was all done by the company Kush Promotions & PR, a specialist marketing and distribution agency.
New Technologies
Different forms of marketing, from outdoor media, print and broadcast advertising, and press & PR activity, to email and text contact lists, flyer ‘shop drops’ in key locations, social media and promotional activity via Black media outlets were used.
The release campaign for Have of a Yellow Sun had a budget of around £112,000. Some of this was £56,500 awarded by the New Models strand of the BFI Distribution Fund.
Digital Distribution
Half of a Yellow Sun was released in the UK on 11th April 2014 on 17 cinemas across the country. It was premiered a day later in Lagos, the capital of Nigeria, the country in which the movie was both set and filmed. It was officially released in Nigeria on 1st August 2014.
Jake Carder's AS Media Studies Blog 