Nigeria cinemas are close to the highs they started the year with. According to recent stats by the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN), cinema’s raked in N426.6m in July- just shy of the N492.1m they generated in January this year.
Our analysis of the report shows that the recovery has been gradual across the year. The N426.6m spent in July is a 30% growth from the N329.25m recorded in June just as the amount spent in June was higher than the amount (N312.8m) made in May.
The revenue breakdown
Following up on its record opening during the last weekend in June, Fast and Furious 9 (F9) drove the revenue growth in July by dominating the cinemas. The blockbuster movie raked in a total of N119.9m during the period.
Just for perspectives, F9 raked more than half that amount, (N56.3 million) during its first weekend.
Attendance vs revenue
As expected, the uptick in revenue corresponded with a boost in cinema attendance. A total of 296,908 movie watchers reportedly visited the cinema in July, 30% growth from the 233,186 moviegoers in the first 3 weeks of June.
The attendance was however still lower than the 360,928 movie watchers that went to the cinemas in January at the start of the year.
A breakdown shows that the first week of the months had the highest number of movie watchers (85,325) as F9 was still fresh in the cinemas. This led to the week being the highest-grossing of the entire month with over N122.9m generated.
The second week wasn’t bad as some past weeks fi the cinemas but it couldn’t topple the volume experienced by the first week despite premiering Marvel’s Black Widow movie.
A total of N114.87m was raked during the week, a 7% drop from the previous week.
The third week saw the cinemas rake in a total of N111.2m benefiting from the fact that F9 and Black Widow were still top interests in the cinemas. However, its revenue was reduced as the blockbusters entered their third and second week respectively.
The final week was the worst of the month as the cinemas experienced a revenue dropping below the N100m despite the fact that G.I Joe’s spin-off “Snake Eyes” debuted that week.
The movie however did fairly well, raking in about N20 million to bring the total for the week to N77.65 million.
Hollywood continues to dominate…
Hollowed movies have continued their run of dominance at the top of the Nigerian box office with the debut of blockbusters like F9 and Blackwidow leading the earnings during the month.
As a matter of fact, Hollywood movies in the Top 5 raked in more than 50% of cinema revenue in the month of July.
F9 tops the chart after raking the highest amount. Scarlett Johansson’s Black widow comes in second with over N83.69 million and topping the box office during the second week.
Nonetheless, several other Nollywood movies like Devil in Agbada, Ayinla and My Village People did relatively well making it to the top of the charts.
The movie Devil in Agbada raked about N40.83m to stand at number 3 while Ayinla came in at fourth with N34.88m generated during the month.
Other movies on the chart include Dwindle with N26.44m, My Village People with N20.81m and Snake Eyes with N19.61m generated during the month.
In Summary
The battle between Hollywood and Nollywood for the Nigerian market is poised to heat up as blockbusters like King of Boys 2, Suicide Squad are scheduled to premiere in August.
The latest growth in revenue generated by cinemas shows that recovery is close. However, when the box office numbers in Nigeria will reach their pre-covid peak is yet to be seen as the worsening economic situation in the country remains a problem.
Technext Newsletter
Get the best of Africa’s daily tech to your inbox – first thing every morning.
Join the community now!
