The summer's sleeper hit

Just when it looked as if the US box office had been totally subjugated by awful, over-promoted thrillers and romcoms, a relatively small, independently produced film has put a smile on the face of all right-thinking cinema analysts. Last weekend District 9,a spiffing science-fiction fable from South Africa, outpaced the dire GI Joe to take top place at the US box-office with an impressive $37 million (€26 million).

Such an unexpected success – generated by word-of-mouth and a clever viral campaign – was supposed to be impossible in the summer months.

District 9,which treats the spectre of Apartheid through the metaphor of an alien visitation, will arrive before lucky Irish cinemagoers on September 4th.