John Apea, popularly known as ‘Junior’ from ‘Home Sweet Home’ fame
Ghanaian filmmaker and entrepreneur John Apea has revealed that his movie Run Baby Run, which made waves some years ago, generated no revenue.
John Apea, popularly known as ‘Junior’ from ‘Home Sweet Home’ fame, stated that the award-winning film did not make any returns due to piracy.
“Do you know the return on investment for Run Baby Run? It was zero! We spent money filming the movie and on marketing and publicity. By the time it reached the cinema, and the first viewing was over, the film was already available on CD in Kumasi,” John Apea stated in an interview on Konnected Minds Podcast.
According to him, unauthorised copies of the movie flooded the market in Kumasi immediately after its first public screening, making it impossible for them to recoup their production costs.
“Unauthorised copies were circulating, and we had no involvement in that; it was a lost venture,” John Apea lamented.
He then admitted that although the movie was a failure financially, many people enjoyed it.
“People were watching the film and praising us for our work, but we made no money from it,” he emphasised.
John Apea played one of the lead roles in ‘Run Baby Run’, a movie directed by his brother Emmanuel Apea Jnr.
The film received eight nominations and won four awards at the ‘Africa Movie Academy Awards’ in 2008, including ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’, and ‘Best Screenplay’.
AK/EB