By Adedapo Adesanya
The Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) has disclosed that Nigerians expended a total of N551.9 million at the box-office across the country in the month of January.
This was disclosed by the body in its box office statistics for the first month of the new year where it was showed that the number was 60 percent of what was spent during the festive period in December last year.
Regarded as the highest grossing month due to the festivities, CEAN noted that Nigerians spent N1 billion (1,023,294,652) at the movies which represents about 14 percent of the total annual cinema spending last year.
The total amount of N551.9 million was seen as impressive because it is believed that January is a recovering month from all the excesses of December.
The data from the box office showed that Nigerian cinemas all over the country admitted 442,173 movie watchers in January.
It also noted that during the month of January, Nigerians watched less of foreign movies with a significant amount of the cinema revenue going to Nollywood movies.
This happens to be the trend with January, as a similar occurrence happened in January 2019 because there were lesser Hollywood movies were released between December and January, meaning that cinemagoers have time to select Nigerian movies as production companies tailor their films to this period.
Nollywood movies like Sugar Rush; Merry Men 2: Another Mission; and Your Excellency appeared in the top five highest grossing movies for most of January, according to the CAEN database.
In February, records from the first weekend in February (January 31 – February 2) showed that N60.1 million was spent at the movies and with Valentines’ Day approaching, this might mean higher business for cinemas.
However, with choices from Video on Demand (VoD) services like Netflix with special content tailored for what is regarded as the “month of love”, this might translate to a stiff competition on the expected numbers.
