How Nigerians Lavished N3bn on Movies in Six Months

By Adedapo Adesanya

Data from the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN), has revealed that Nigerians spent about N3,124,026,959 in cinemas between January and June 2019, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

Movies like ‘Aquaman’, ‘Chief Daddy’ and ‘Up North’ opened the year as top three movies with estimated combined earnings of N168.3 million.

The movies maintained their positions until ‘Glass’ debuted at number one in the fourth week with ‘Aquaman’ taking second place and ‘Chief Daddy’, third and ‘Up North’ the fourth place.

This resulted in total earnings of N91.409 million which fell to N77.259 million as January closed with Kevin Hart’s ‘The Upside’ kicking ‘Chief Daddy’ to fourth place.

February was the lowest grossing month with a total of N291.843 million. Top movie spots were alternated between ‘Alita’, ‘Cold Pursuit’, ‘What Men Want’, ‘Escape Room’ and ‘The UpSide’.

March was a different story than February with earnings almost double that of February amounting to a total of N434.432 million with a large percentage of this coming from Marvel’s release of Captain Marvel.

At the beginning of April, ‘HellBoy’, ‘Shazam’, ‘Little’ and ‘Us’ continued to share the top spot with ‘Captain Marvel’ until the release of the much anticipated ‘Avengers: Endgame’.

NAN reports that with ‘Avengers: Endgame’, earnings from April climbed from N186.929 million in its third week to N342.382 million in its final week.

The month of April is the highest grossing in 2019 so far, closed with an estimated total earnings of N734.151 million due to major boost from the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Avengers: Endgame.

May saw a massive inclination in earnings similar to that experienced in February. With ‘Endgame’, ‘The Intruder’ and ‘Longshot’, it earned a total of N367.499 million.

The numbers picked up in June with ‘John Wick’, ‘Godzilla’ and ‘Aladdin’ leading the numbers. They were supported by ‘Anna’, ‘Men In Black’, ‘Dark Phoenix’ and ‘Bling Lagosians’.

June opened with N161.133 million but closed with N100.664 million leading to a total earning of N576.323 million.