By: Ganiyu Olowu
It is heartwarming that Nigeria’s movie industry has been globally recognized and rated as the second largest film producer globally. The Industry is a significant part of the Arts, Entertainment and Recreation Sector which contributed 2.3%(NGN239biliion) to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2016. But how healthy is the industry?
Today, the quality of movies being churned out in the burgeoning movie industry has continued to nosedive. This has continued to be a source of worries to key stakeholders who are concerned about the future of the industry.
Quite appalling is the fact that producers now go to the field to shoot anything which they eventually tagged blockbuster. It is so
bad to the extent that with less than N500,000 some so called producers shoot movies in Nigeria. I was wowed when a supposed
movie producer I gave a script told me pointedly that with N500,000 – N750,000, the movie can be produced.
That is the extent of the rot which has permeated the movie industry. Of course, your guess is good as mine as to the type of work that such an amount of money will churn out. In the era, while there were discipline, some producers that know their onions would only release a movie, maybe once in a year. This is with a view to ensuring that the quality of such movies are topnotch.
Producers like Kunle Afolayan, Tunde Kelani and a host of others in the past have distinguished themselves by ensuring that whatever movie is attached to their names has a touch of class and quality. One of the movies by Kunle Afolayan for instance that has stood the test of time is October 1st which has a trapping of modern and quality production.
In time past, theatre icons like Hubert Ogunde and late Duro Ladipo had popularity on stage play and this really made the movies of those days worthwhile. As time goes on, the movie industry became eroded with the advent of home videos. When, the movie industry became an escape haven for unemployed graduates, all sort of productions that cannot be cast as quality began to crept into the market and the game continues to get worse by the day.
As the fortune of the movie industry continues to dwindle, the cinemas also begin to lose its aura and vibes as less movies are now
being shown at the cinema.
In recent times, however, there seems to be a return to stage by some movie producers who are now giving the act of movie production some sense of finesse into the industry with their kind
of production. Obviously, one of the major reasons why most movie producers jettisoned the stage for the home video is the huge capital
outlay required to produce a stage play and the possibility of running into debts if the huge funds expended are either not recovered or if the original stock get stolen. The nasty experience of
the then King of Comedy, Moses Adejumo popularly called Baba Sala with Mosebolata which unfortunately wrecked the famous
actor is still fresh in the minds of followers of events in the movie industry.
According to analysts, typically movie producers make more gross profit from box office, (Cinema) than the home videos, but they make more net profit from home videos. But that’s only if you separate the overhead of each stage of release against itself. Making and marketing the movie is very expensive, and studios only get maybe 50% of the box office, so it might not turn a profit from the box office alone, even it grosses a lot of money. But marketing anddistributing Home Videos, even DVDs, but much less VOD, is a fraction of the cost, and unlike a box office run that eventually ends, VOD is available forever.
One advantage of the box office cinema is the fact that more energy and time are expended on the production and more money could be generated especially if a movie is first shown at the cinema before cutting it into home videos.
One Movie producer that is bringing back the vibes into movie production is Femi Adebayo who has been in a celebratory mood
following the massive success of his project, King of Thieves (Agesinkole).
The star actor has continued to receive accolades for the originality of the story and costume in his self-produced movie. He
was quoted as saying ‘ King of Thieves’ has grossed over N224 million in just four weeks, placing it among the top 10 highest-grossing movie in Nigeria.
King of Thieves, released on April 4, 2022, is an epic tale of ‘Agesinkole’, an all-powerful bandit and his reign of terror in the prosperous Kingdom of Ajeromi.
According to the ace actor, the epic action-thriller was to showcase the creativity of the Yoruba culture to the entire world and
announce the crop of talents existent in the Yoruba genre. King of Thieves features Toyin Abraham, Lateef Adedimeji, Adebayo
Salami, Broda Shagi, Femi Adebayo, Segun Arinze, among other A-list actors.
It was gathered that Femi Adebayo spent over 100 million naira to produce ” King of Thieves”, and the movies is poised to rake in more money having done much already.
Another movie that is giving the return to stage for the movie industry an assurance is the blockbuster produced by Opomilero,
Mainframe production powered by the Septuagenarian cinematographer, Tunde Kelani. Like, Adebayo’s movie ” Ayinla” is also making waves as it had raked in over N70 billion naira before being taken to Netflix which is a global distribution network. With its advent on NETFLIX, the last sure has not been heard in terms of the financial fortunes the movie is poised to generate. It was reportedly sponsored by First Bank Nigeria PLCwhich pumped no less than N50 million naira into itss production.
This latest development calls for a rethink of the funding model of the movie industry. There is the need for more stakeholders’ involvement in the funding, while government also needs to consider better funding of the industry.
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