Last year, the Nigerian economy experienced an economic downturn that threatened various facets of the economy. Despite the recession, it didn’t affect the box office revenue for the movies released last year.
According to reports, 1billion was made from a record 50 locally-produced titles. The N1 billion represents nearly 30 percent of the N3.5 billion generated from just 28 cinemas across Nigeria, which includes movies from Hollywood and around the world.
The most extraordinary result came from ELFIKE’s The Wedding Party that still continues to crash box office records weeks after its release on December 16, 2016. The movie broke AY Makun‘s record of N176 million by making N200 million in about two weeks.
Moses Babatope, COO of FilmOne Distribution said:” 2016 has been an amazing year for Nigerian cinema. With returns of well over N200 million, The Wedding Party is on track to deliver numbers we have never seen before for a Nigerian film. It’s important to note that it is selling more tickets than Rogue One, part of the Star Wars franchise and the biggest film worldwide this season. For the first time, Nollywood is competing with Hollywood at the Nigerian box-office and winning.”
Movies like Omoni Oboli’s Wives on Strike, Kunle Afolayan’s The CEO, Steve Gukas‘ 93 Days and Izu Ojukwu‘s ’76 have also contributed to Nollywood’s amazing revenue.
Other movies that contributed to the record-breaking Nollywood gross revenue include Omoni Oboli’s Wives on Strike, Kunle Afolayan’s The CEO, Steve Gukas‘ 93 Days and Izu Ojukwu‘s ’76.