Comedy wars boost ticket sales at Turkish box office

ISTANBUL

The fourth film of Şahan Gökbakar’s ‘Recep İvedik’ series was the most-watched film in Turkey between Jan 3 and March 16 this year, according to the Turkish box office figures.

The war of comedy productions on the silver screen increased tickets sales by 34.7 percent in the first 10 weeks of the year, according to Turkish Box office figures.

Ticket sales, which amounted to 15,224,846 last year in the same period, increased to 20,512,807 this year thanks to the release of new comedy films, including “Recep İvedik 4,” “Eyvah Eyvah 3” and “Düğün Dernek” (The Wedding Feast). These three were the most watched first three films in Turkey in the first 10 weeks of this year. These films’ ticket sales garnered 13,348,038 views.

According to Box Office Turkey figures between the dates of Jan. 3 and March 16, the fourth film of comedian Şahan Gökbakar’s “Recep İvedik” series, reached 6,060,983 viewers in the fourth week of its release, breaking its own record.

The film continues to be a rival against “Düğün Dernek,” which last year became the most-watched film in Turkish cinemas since 1989, up until now, the record has not been topped.

“Düğün Dernek” was released in the last days of 2013, and reached a total of 6,694,395 viewers since then. It follows “Recep İvedik” on the list of the same period.

The jokes and vulgarity in all three “Recep İvedik” movies were directed at the urban upper-middle class, a testament to the troubled relationship between the classes in big cities, namely Istanbul, according to HDN writer Emrah Güler. “İvedik was the personification of the migrant who felt out-of-place in the urban offices of emerging plazas and the Starbucks of city and was a character who showed no intention of honing his skills or finding new ones to earn a living or a place among the so-called White Turks,” Güler writes.

Starring Ahmet Kural and Murat Cemcir, “Düğün Dernek” centers on a wedding for the son of one of four close friends in the central Anatolian province of Sivas. The film was produced on a miniscule budget, but made a huge impression, bringing recognition to Kural and Cemcir. As of today, the film will be released as a new version, extended by 30 minutes.

Starring Ata Demirer and Demet Akbağ, the third film of the series, “Eyvah Eyvah 3” was viewed by 3,300,919 people. Set in the northwestern province of Çanakkale, the film tells the adventure of a naïve clarinet player Hüseyin Badem, played by Demirer, and his singer friend Firuzan, played by Akbağ.

Another popular romantic-comedy genre film is “Patron Mutlu Son İstiyor.” The film’s script was written by director and actor Yılmaz Erdoğan and stars Tolga Çevik and Ezgi Mola. It reached 1,294,639 viewers since its release this year and ranked third on the list.