The Nigerian film industry (known as Nollywood) is the world’s third most profitable film business, but it has yet to realize its full potential.
In terms of output, Nollywood is the world’s second-largest, trailing only Bollywood. It produced an average of 50 movies per week at its peak, albeit of lesser technical quality.
Nigerian actors achieved unrivaled fame throughout the continent during Nollywood’s golden age in the first decade of the new Millennium. RMD, Genevieve, Omotola, Jim Iyke, Aki, Pawpaw, and others were well-known throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.
Nollywood’s potential is clear today, as it was yesterday. According to a recent PwC report, Nigeria’s entertainment sector will be worth $15 billion by 2025 if properly capitalized.
Similarly, Dr. Young-Tobi Ekechi, Chief Executive Officer of First Generation Mortgage Bank (FGMB), asserted in a speech titled “Nollywood: A Rising Pillar in Nigeria’s Socio-economic Development,” at the closing session of the 2022 Nollywood Technology and Security Summit, that the country’s film industry has a financial value of over $6.4 billion, making it one of the world’s fastest-growing film industries and one of Nigeria’s largest employers of labor.
Most recently, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Minister of Finance and Director General of the World Trade Organization, WTO, stated at the Governors Forum in Abuja on Monday, May 15, 2023, that “Nollywood is one of the world’s fastest-growing creative industries, worth $6.4 billion in 2021 and growing at 10% per year.”
year.”
Without a doubt, the signs of grandeur are visible.
However, there is cause for alarm because Nollywood’s power appears to be weakening, its intensity and aura fading.
A variety of trends are quietly weakening its authority and influence, endangering the film industry’s profitability.
Piracy
This has long been a foe of Nollywood and the Nigerian creative industry. Previously, some film producers would storm the streets and assault known piracy hotspots, such as Lagos’ Alaba Market, to confront dealers of pirated CDs and DVDs. Nonetheless, their anguish remained unabated as pirated versions of their films continued to flood the streets. According to the World Bank, only one out of every ten Nigerian movies sold is legal.
Piracy was the scourge that prompted Nollywood to seek alternative outlets, like as theatrical releases and video-on-demand possibilities.
DVD and Blu-ray discs are still available in other countries and provide cash for filmmakers. Maverick: Top Gun, for example, had 829, 831 DVD sales worth $15, 671, 902 in just 18 weeks by December 25, 2022. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, piracy has effectively eliminated the possibility of Nollywood films being released on CD or DVD. As a result, the industry is denied what should have been its primary source of profit.
The box office is another certain source of cash. India has over 9,000 cinema screens, while the United States has at least
5, 798. That is why films in such nations are profitable. Nigeria has only 68 cinemas, with nearly half of them in Lagos State. As a result, Nollywood will not generate the box office revenues that characterize successful film businesses.
Reality television’s growing clout
While reality television is not in direct competition with Nollywood, it has cut into the audience’s viewing time, particularly among the younger population.
The Big Brother Naija (BBN) brand, for example, has grown stronger over the last seven years to become the king of Nigerian television shows.
The event captivates the Nigerian public for an average of 71 to 99 days, during which time no film release or television soap opera can compete for interest. The basic line is that it is impossible to release a film when BBN is still running and expect it to be successful.
“Some 15 years ago, we used to keep tabs on what movies were recently released every week,” said Victoria Danlami, an Abuja banker who characterized herself as a “film addict.” But there is so much to watch on TV and social media these days. BBN excites me more than any new film.”
Another respondent, architect Dele Ejiko, stated, “We remember BBN housemates better than new faces in Nollywood.” Names like Dorathy Bachor, Nengi, Erica, Saga, Angel Smith, Cross, and Liquorose have become increasingly familiar to me and others in the last three years, for example.
than the names of fresh Nollywood performers.”
The rise of comedy skits
Skits were uncommon 30 or 20 years ago. Today, making skits is the most popular kind of audiovisual creation. It is a thriving craft that is so profitable that it is threatening Nollywood’s innovation, prolificity, and profitability.
In March 2022, Dataleum ranked skit-making as Nigeria’s third-largest entertainment industry, valued at N50 billion. It has expanded much further in the last year. Mr Macaroni, Broda Shaggy, Taaoma, and a slew of others, including teenagers like Kiriku, have all attained fame and fortune beyond that of some Nollywood performers. They now have star power comparable to that of conventional performers. Previously, actors were chosen as brand ambassadors; now, sketch creators are preferred for marketing negotiations.
Furthermore, some of them are natural talents who should have gone to Nollywood. For example, Macaroni, a trained dramatist and occasional performer, and Taaooma, whose interest in video editing sparked her interest in skitmaking, both ended up on the comedy skit side of the entertainment divide. The sparkle and glamour that used to be reserved for actors has now become the domain of comedians. This has pushed new-generation creatives to channel their talent into skit-making rather than Nollywood.
Although there has been a strong symbiotic relationship between skit creators and Nollywood actors, it has ultimately benefited the former.
“I’d be thrilled to learn that my favorite skit creator is in a new film,” said Elizabeth Okoye, a businesswoman and a writer.
I’m a movie buff.
What if a well-known actor appears in a skit?
“It doesn’t excite me all that much,” she admitted.
That simple remark explains the current situation of soft power in the filmmaking and skitmaking industries.
Services for streaming
With pirates controlling VCD and DVD sales and few movie screens, Nollywood found new life in streaming services, particularly Netflix, which acts as a bulwark against pirates.
Netflix has given young filmmakers opportunities such as Kemi Adetiba, who produced The Wedding Party and the King of Boys series, and Linda Ikeji, a blogger and businesswoman whose first feature was Dark October.
There are currently over 100 Nollywood films available on Netflix. While some fail to amaze, others are critically lauded.
However, Nollywood’s growing domination on Netflix does not imply that it is succeeding by global standards.
Chima Ude, the founder of the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), expressed this sentiment in an interview, saying, “A movie executive once told me that Netflix pays people here much less for their movies because we don’t put in as much as people from other countries.” There is no plot development, no set construction, and no sound stage. There are numerous other structures that we do not use when filming here.”
Ude wondered inwardly: “Have we made great films?” We did. But do they meet global standards? No.”
