Despite all the hurdles and challenges faced by Nigerian film producers, Nollywood can be guaranteed a billion Naira rain every year with Funke Akindele, Toyin Abraham and Femi Adebayo in the mix.
For another year after grossing over a billion Naira 2023 film, ‘A Tribe called Judah,’, Akindele’s 2025 release, ‘Behind The Scenes,’ again, has grossed over a billion Naira mark after release in the festive period.
In 2024, ‘A Tribe Called Judah,’ which was released on December 15, 2023, grossed over a billion Naira and made history as the first Nigerian film to achieve such a feat. In 2025, Akindele’s ‘Behind The Scenes,’ which was released on December 12, 2o25, grossed a total of N1, 767, 305, 878 as at the end of December. It is unsure if the film will not gross N2billion mark to achieve another feat and make history.
Akindele, it appears, has continued to break her own records in Nollywood with successful cinema runs. From ‘Jenifa’ to ‘Return of Jenifa,’ ‘Omo Ghetto,’ ‘A Tribe Called Judah,’ and ‘Behind The Scenes,’ it has been one success story to the other.
On her recent success with ‘Behind The Scenes,’ Akindele said, “Forever grateful to God and my fans. Thank you for the love and support over the years. Big thanks to the distributors, cast, crew, and colleagues.”
The filmmaker cum actress, isn’t the only one raking in hundreds of millions, other filmmakers including Toyin Abraham, Femi Adebayo, Timini Egbuson, and Wumi Toriola have made a fortune from cinema runs and contributed largely to Nollywood’s GDP.
Toyin Abraham, who, equally, seemed to have mastered the cinema run trick with films that have become successful at the box office, contributed to Nollywood’s billion Naira bounty in 2025 with her release, ‘Oversabi Aunty.’
As at January 7, the film had grossed a total of N711m in only 18 days after release. The film joins a long list of successful films by Abraham, which have done well at the box office. Her 2024 feature, ‘Alakada: Bad and Boujee,’ peaked at N500m in 15 weeks.
For 2025 and joining Akindele in making historic feats are Femi Adebayo’s whose ‘Ageshinkole 2’ made N417m in 12 days after selling for a flat rate of N3,000 across six states in the South West of Nigeria.
Unlike Abraham and Akindele, Adebayo decided to chart another pathway to making more funds in Nollywood with the employment of selected community cinemas only to screen his film at a controlled price.
On his success and reason for the route, Adebayo, in a chat, said, “The idea was consummated with my partners – Circuit TV. We decided to open another channel of revenue and point of meeting the fans half way after I had noticed that some of our fans, who can’t afford the luxury of the cinema for different reasons ranging from pricing to distance but genuinely want to see our films. I remembered my father and veterans before us used to have traveling theatre and I just felt it was possible and I discussed it with my partners, who embraced it and we worked out the dynamics. Circuit TV also assured and worked on ensuring the content wasn’t pirated. To God be the glory for the success and I am happy I championed this route.”
A total of N2.895 billion formed a larger sum of Nollywood’s GDP for 2025 through the three filmmakers only.
The laudable feat is not new to Nollywood since the boom of cinema culture, however, challenges remain constant for filmmakers and producers, who invest heavily in production of the content.
It is believed that cinema operators and distributors earn more than the filmmakers and producers cum investors in the chain of ROI, hence, multiple complaints from filmmakers and producers.
It is also alleged that some films seem to enjoy more screen time than other films depending on the distributor and cinema operators. Many have argued covertly and overtly that films produced and distributed by Filmone entertainment, which has a studio, distribution arm and chains of cinemas littered across Nigeria and some West African countries, tend to do better in cinema than other films distributed and or produced by other filmmaking companies.
The claims have been largely refuted at different fora by the management of Filmone entertainment as well as the leadership of Cinema and Exhibitors Association of Nigeria, CEAN, insisting there isn’t bias or favouritism as has been claimed and alleged in several quarters.
The Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria denied the allegations of favoritism and unfair practices stating that cinema scheduling is driven by audience demand, real-time ticket sales, and market performance, not bias, a standard global practice. CEAN clarified that high-performing films get more showtimes to meet demand, and encouraged filmmakers to use formal channels for complaints, proposing a roundtable dialogue to address issues like poor screening times for films.
Credit: Nation
