Hollywood reclaims dominance in Nigeria as moviegoers spent N386m in Oct

The month of September was an amazing run for the Nigerian film industry as it saw locally made movies in Nigeria dominating in the cinemas. The Ghost and the Tout took the lead as the highest-grossing movie for the month, but that changed in the preceding month. 

According to stats by the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN), Hollywood movies have now regained their dominance and are back at the top of the charts as observed in the 7-day reports released for the month of October. 

These foreign movies dominated the cinemas all month long in October, with Hollywood’s No Time to Die and Venom: Let There Be Carnage both retaining top spots for the month. 

The CEAN report for October also revealed that Nigerians spent about N386 million on movies. This is a significant 15% drop from the N453.6m spent by movie lovers in the month of September. 

This drop in revenue rarely corresponded to a drop in cinema attendance for the two months. The report shows that a total of 235,975 movie watchers reportedly visited the cinema in October, which is less than a 1% drop from the 236,822 movie watchers recorded in September. 

Although there was a significant shift in moviegoers’ attention from the cinema in October, the highest-grossing movie for the month, Universal Studio’s “No Time to Die“, accumulated a total of 190m in cinema gross. 

Sony’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage also picked up pace in Nigerian cinemas as it was able to gross N26 million in its first weekend of viewing.

It still trails after the similar success of The Ghost and The Tout 2, which made about N33m in its first weekend in September. 

As the Yuletide approaches 

The number of cinemagoers is expected to rise even as the Yuletide season is fast approaching. This rise is expected to translate into significant growth in revenue earnings for both foreign and locally made movies. 

Nigerian productions are also expected to perform as well as their foreign counterparts in theatres. The Nollywood movie, Progressive Tailors’ Club currently holds the third spot for the closing weekend in October and is expected to do well in the coming months of November and December. 

The last weekend in October also saw Nollywood movies like ‘Bad Boys and Bridesmaids‘, ‘Charge and Bail‘ and ‘Ghost and the Tout 2‘ still retaining favourable spots on the CEAN charts. 

Hollywood’s Dune and Disney’s Ron’s Gone Wrong are also picking up the pace, maintaining a 4th and 5th position, respectively, on the charts.

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