‘City of Life’, the first feature film produced and set in Dubai, came second in the UAE box office on its first weekend on release and its makers are now planning to show the film at the Cannes Film Festival later this year, a producer behind the film told Arabian Business on Thursday.
The film, which was directed and written by Emirati filmmaker Ali F Mustafa, made AED509,085 ($138,598) in its first four days in release when it was released on April 22, according to official box office data from Italia Film International.
“We are elated. It was what we were hoping for,” said Tim Smyth, CEO of Film works and the producer of the film.
The movie, which was filmed and set in Dubai, was only beaten by Warner Brothers’ $125m Hollywood blockbuster ‘Clash of the Titans’, which generated AED4,087,043 ($1.112m) in the same weekend and was also a new release.
Smyth added that film’s distributors were expecting 6,000 people to attend ‘City of Life’ during the opening weekend, but it attracted more than double that, with 15,807 UAE cinemagoers opting to pay to see the new release.
“To come second, considering the number of screens we were on, which was about a third of the number of screens ‘Clash of the Titans’ was on, is a monumental success and I am very proud for Ali Mustafa,” he said.
