The Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN), has disclosed that Nigerians have spent a total of N914 million on movies in November, 2022. Out of this revenue, Marvel's ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ raked over N600 million Naira (65%) out of the total sum.
The sequel to the 2018 original became the most viewed movie in cinemas for November after three weeks of its release last month, surpassing top rivals which include Nollywood’s ‘Brotherhood,’ Hollywood’s ‘The Woman King,’ and ‘Black Adam.’
‘Brotherhood’ remained in the list of the top five highest-grossing movies for November, going toe to toe with Hollywood’s ‘The Woman King’ despite playing in Nigerian cinemas for one less week. The movie records a cumulatively earning of N318.8 million and finished top 2 at the box office for November.
According to the data released by CEAN, more than 223,297 people trooped to the cinemas to see the Marvel production across the country. That is 38,548 more than its closest rival, ‘Black Adam’, which had 184,749 viewers. ‘Black Adam’ is showing for its 6th week in Nigerian theatres.
The top 10 Nollywood movies for the year so far have grossed a combined sum of N1 million with ‘Brotherhood’ overtaking ‘King of Thieves’ to become the Number 1 Nollywood movie of the year and the 5th highest grossing Nollywood film of all time.
Commenting on this year’s box office figures, Patrick Lee, the CEAN National President, told the News Agency of Nigeria that the massive box office earnings of Nigerian movies is a testament to the shift in orientation and interest in watching movies screened at cinemas, rather than the usual practice of streaming or downloading pirated movies. Lee says a similar trend was observed in April when a 50% increase in sales volume was recorded, from the N388 million recorded in the same period last year.
Despite these huge revenues from the box office, streaming platforms still eclipse cinema exhibitions. According to the Industry Report from Inside Nollywood, “If the audience is beginning to depend more on streaming to see Nollywood films, the filmmakers and other stakeholders have a heavy hand in this.
They created a system where films make their debut on the big screen and go on to stream on an online platform about three months later. To the audience, the wait is not an unbearably long one to watch a Nollywood film, especially if expectations are low.”
In December's opening weekend, ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ still tops Nigeria's most watched movies list, grossing N48,931,834, followed by fresh and long releases including ‘Violent Night’, ‘The StandUp’, and ‘Gbege’ in its top 10 list.