LIKE AFROBEATS, LIKE NOLLYWOOD: FROM RAPID LOCAL ADOPTION TO POSSIBLE GLOBAL DOMINATION

Hyperlocal content from Nigeria has been on the rise for over a decade now, we owe this proliferation mostly to Afrobeats long-awaited take off in international markets and the ripening of the African-diaspora. This moment wouldn’t have been possible without the local industry players riding on the back of international businesses & structures, to drive the music to the corridors of the rest of the world. To be clear, Nollywood has also had its moments on the global stage; only that these stints have not been strong enough to create an international impression of the world’s second biggest film producer in terms of volume. An honorable mention will be Genevieve’s Lion Heart; Lion Heart was submitted to the Oscars for the Best International Feature Film Category; although it was dropped for not having up to 12-minutes of Igbo Language. Nonetheless, it is clear that there is a teeming demand for Nollywood movies locally & internationally and the filmmakers are tapping into this indubitable potential.

Filmone; a Lagos based movie distribution house, has taken a step in the right direction by brokering an exclusive partnership with US based movie theater chain, Regal cinemas. This partnership helped launch Nollywood’s recent IT project “Battle on Buka Street” which debuted in 11 cities across USA & UK including Atlanta, New York, Chicago, North Brunswick, Houston, Texas, Los Angeles, Dublin, Long Island City, Columbia, and Silver Spring

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Funke Akindele’s ‘Battle on Buka Street’ has set a Nollywood record with ₦135m in one day on Box Office and grossed over ₦26 Million on Christmas day, shattering all records held by previous Nollywood movies. The movie in its 7th week was still #1 with a weekend gross revenue of ₦14.2 Million as of the final week of January, 2023 (a -30% change over the previous week) across 63 locations with an average of ₦226,830 per location. Over 5,963 people watched in its 7th week of airing at various Cinemas (weekend admission).  So far, this Nollywood movie has earned ₦601.3 Million in Cumulative Revenue and a cumulative admission of over 227.5K people across the nation. This movie is on pace to become the best-selling (Cinema) Nollywood movie in history in less than 3 months of release.

Once again FilmOne’s international partnerships are creating cross-cultural effects that the local Nigerian cinemas are experiencing such a tremendous boom. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever just surpassed a record breaking ₦1 Billion Gross in 9 weeks in Nigerian 🇳🇬 Box office — becoming the first ever movie to achieve such success in Nigerian cinema. The movie also distributed by FilmOne, in its 12th week still ranked #6 with a weekend gross revenue of ₦2.49 Million as of the final week of January, 2023 (a -45% change over the previous week) across 33 locations with an average of ₦75,619  per location. Over 1,268 people watched in its 12th week of airing at various Cinemas (weekend admission). So far, the Hollywood sequel has earned a milestone ₦1.03 Billion in Cumulative Revenue and a cumulative admission of over 375.8K people across the nation.

The final week of January, 2023 Nigeria Box Office closed with a weekend revenue of ₦56.7 Million, a -3% decrease over the previous week.

The underlying partnerships between Nollywood & Hollywood players are still very much in their early stages but are already creating a ripple effect in the local market. We can only trust that both players will sync well enough to be able to translate these   8 local successes in other regions outside of Africa till Nollywood becomes a cash crop export like Afrobeats

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