Nigerians spent N6.94 billion in cinemas across the country in 2022, the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria has disclosed.
Opeyemi Ajayi, the association’s national president, revealed the figure during an interview in Lagos.
Ajayi said there had been an appreciable increase in revenue generation in 2022 compared with the previous years.
The N6.94 billion in 2022 is also more than the N4.74 billion generated in 2021 — which is a 46.4 per cent growth year-on-year.
“The box office raked in N4.74 billion in 2021, N2.1 billion in 2020, N6.4 billion in 2019 and N5.98 billion in 2018. For 2022, the increase in average ticket price led to revenue growth and admissions remained flat in the previous year.
“On the back of a strong local industry, Nigeria continues to lead the recovery in Africa post-COVID.” Also, Hollywood continues to focus on African content and engagement is very positive for the box office.
“We observed that “Black Panther” is on track to become the first N1bn movie,” he said.
Ajayi said that for the 2023 outlook, gross revenue and admissions were expected to grow by a minimum of 20 percent.
He said some factors had been observed to drive growth in the new year as 5 cinemas were opened in the fourth quarter of 2022 and a minimum of 3 new locations were expected to open in the first half of 2023.
“This will be a positive addition to the box office,” he said.
He said that a 10 to 15 per cent increase on ticket prices would potentially drive box office revenue in 2023, because independent cinemas constituted 25 per cent of the market share at present, although they were faced with the low ticket price.
”Collaborations between Hollywood and Nollywood on content is expected to continue in the foreseeable future.
“And with the breakout success of big Nollywood movies like Brotherhood, Battle on Buka Street, and King of Thieves, to name a few, 2023 is expected to have larger budget movies and potential release outside of West African territory,” he added.
Ajayi listed the top 5 highest-grossing Nollywood films in 2022 as Brotherhood, King of Thieves, Battle on Buka Street, Ijakumo and Passport.
He named Black Panther, Woman King, Dr. Strange, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Black Adam as the top five highest-grossing Hollywood films.
