The spark moviegoers started the year with appears to have petered out as recent cinema stats show that the number of movie watchers has dropped for the second consecutive month.
The report shows that Nigerian cinemas across the country admitted 168, 000 movie watchers in March. This is a significant drop from 177,220 movie watchers in February and 360,928 movie watchers admitted in January.
Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) data shows that moviegoers have dropped by over 100% since January
The drop in cinema attendance caused the revenue generated by cinemas to fall even further during the month. The Box office numbers show that Nigerians spent just N202.65 million in March compared to N223.62 million in February and a whopping N492.15 million in January.
However, revenue generated in March was higher than the N198.2 million cinema operators raked in during the pandemic troubles last year.
A breakdown shows that the highest-grossing week of the month came in the first week, with cinemas grossing over N52.26 million. By the second week, the revenue dropped drastically to N25.15 million.
In the third week, however, the industry started showing great signs of recovery as moviegoers spent N39.29 million, a 34% increase from the previous week.
Just like in February, Nigerian cinemas did not make up to N100 million during any week in March.
The fourth week was better as cinemas raked in N40.99 million but it was still below the 50M weekly average pre-pandemic.
The return of American Blockbusters also helped as moviegoers spent N40.96 in the final weekend of March alone. However, it was not enough to hit February’s numbers.
Nollywood dominates box office but Hollywood is fighting back
Riding off the high of the previous month, Nollywood movies continued to dominate the top 10 grossing movies in cinemas. However, two Hollywood movies ranked in the Top 5 as American blockbusters returned to screens.
In March, the top 10 grossing movies contributed more than 80% of the total revenue generated by cinemas. A breakdown shows that Nollywood movies raked in N118.705 million while Hollywood made just N45.095m.
Nollywood’s Omo Ghetto, despite being released last year, still tops the country’s box office. Since its release, the movie has made N635.06m in Nigerian cinemas and about 41.87 million in March alone.
Omo Ghetto alone accounted for more than 20% of the total amount spent on movies in March.
Other Nollywood movies in the top 5 also made giant strides in the month. Ponzi raked in over N24.35 million and Razz Guy made over N12.95 million during the month.
In the Hollywood movie category, Godzilla vs Kong raked in N17.81 million, the highest-grossing Hollywood movie in March. Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon also did well with over N15.33 million.
Godzilla vs Kong raked in over N17M on it’s debut weekend
Other Hollywood movies like Tom and Jerry that debuted in February has been performing well, raking in about N12.93 million since launch and N11.95 million in March.
In Summary
Despite the return of Blockbusters, Nigerian cinema’s are still unable to reach pre-pandemic high.
However, with more blockbusters scheduled to drop in the coming months’ cinema’s have much to look forward to in terms of growth.
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