Nigerians Prefer Hollywood Movies; Nollywood’s Cinema Market Share Drops: Report

Nollywood’s market share in cinemas is currently at 25.8 per cent, down from the 39.3 per cent it held in the first half of 2021.

Data analysed by The Industry by Inside Nollywood, a film data publication, said the drop was despite the fact that in both years, total cinema admissions had remained at 1.49 million with 7,000 more admissions recorded in 2022.

The little increase in total admissions counted in favour of Hollywood titles, leaving Nollywood films scrambling for an even smaller percentage of cinemagoers.

The 2022 drop is an all-time low despite the stable streak in the last five years.

The publication noted that in the last couple of years, Nollywood had managed a market share within the threshold of 40 per cent, with a large chunk of the remaining 60 per cent held by Hollywood.

In 2021, despite being a pandemic recovery year, the industry still managed to hold 39.3 per cent in the first half of the year, selling about 964,523 tickets out of the over 1,491,530 tickets.

Meanwhile, in the first half of 2022, out of the 1,498,934 tickets sold, Nollywood sold about 520,656, which is a 46 per cent decrease from the previous year.

Speaking on the data, co-publisher of Inside Nollywood, Anita Eboigbe, said, “There are always about 10 Nollywood movies in the cinema per time.”

Tickets range from N1,200 to N5,000 depending on the weekly buzz around the movie and the performance.

Ms Eboigbe noted that Nollywood’s decline in market share called for introspection.

According to her, stakeholders are constantly debating several possibilities, but the over-dependence of filmmakers on streaming has conditioned the audience and the laziness of exhibitors in growing the cinema culture.

(NAN)