In an interview with StandardLife&Style, executive producer and director of the film which features former Big Brother contestant “Munya the Diamond boy,” Joe Njagu said the sales of the film have been overwhelming.
“Since the release of the movie in February, the sales of the DVD have soared, as we have employed aggressive marketing by selling in the streets and also pegging the price of the movie at a competitive price of US$1, which has worked,” he said.
Njagu added that the 100 000 figure incorporated local sales only as they are yet to gather statistics of all the international and regional sales to come up with the total sales.
“Once that is done Lobola is set to break all records for the highest selling locally produced film,” said Njagu.
“We are selling the movie online in Europe and in the United States and we have entered into an agreement with a United Kingdom based company Song Ear, which is owned by a Zimbabwean and the DVD is pegged at almost £5 (about US$7,50).”
“Also, in the United States a company owned by a Kenyan called River Flex have been doing the sales of the movie since May,” added Njagu.
The sales team can be visibly seen almost on a daily basis in the busy area of Copacabana Terminus in Harare selling the movie and have adopted a “vending strategy, selling in the street hence eliminating the third man,” a move that Joe applauded and said was working very well.
“We sat down and realised that the only way we could curb piracy was to do what the piracy guys were themselves doing, so we sought clearance from the Harare City Council to sell our product in the street and this minimised piracy,” said Njagu.
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