The Nigerian cinemas are raking in sales as it was reported that Nigerians spent N3, 124, 026, 959 in cinemas between January and June 30 2019.
Since movie culture is growing among Nigerian youths and different social classes, it is not a surprise that the industry is booming.
According to reports by News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), these figures are according to the data provided by cinemas and gathered by the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN).
[READ ALSO:Nigerian Cinemas expecting big business from Avengers: Endgame]
How it happened: This year saw the opening of many popular movies which made the toll online. The movies include ‘Aquaman’, ‘Chief Daddy’ and ‘Up North’. They raked in N168,263,512 combined profit.
The movies were top on the list until the fourth week of the year when another movie ‘Glass’ debuted at number one with ‘Aquaman’ taking second place and ‘Chief Daddy’, third, booting ‘Up North’ to fourth place.
This replacement led to combined earnings of N91,409,100 which fell to N77,259,811 as January brought the Kevin Hart’s ‘The Upside’, making ‘Chief Daddy’ fall to the fourth place.
In a report by NAN, earnings from the Cinema was low for February, making it the lowest grossing month with a total of N291,843,044.
The top movies were later replaced with ‘Alita’, ‘Cold Pursuit’, ‘What Men Want’, ‘Escape Room’ and ‘The Upside’.
There was an increase in views in March, and the earnings were almost doubled from that of February, leading to a total of N434,432,431.
[ALSO READ: Nigerians spent over N600 million at the cinemas in December 2018]
‘What Men Want’, ‘Alita’, ‘Hire A Woman’, ‘She Is’, ‘Us’ and ‘Babymamas’ topped the chart in March but most earnings and viewership went to Marvel’s flick ‘Captain Marvel’.
Beginning of April saw the release of ‘HellBoy’, ‘Shazam’, ‘Little’ and ‘Us’ which shared the top chart with ‘Captain Marvel’, until it was gradually replaced with the anticipated ‘Avengers: Endgame’.
Earning from ‘Avengers: Endgame’, rose from N186,929,188 in its third week to N342,382,389 in its final week.
April is the highest grossing in 2019 and it closed with estimated total earnings of N734,151,060 majorly boosted from Disney’s ‘Endgame’.
May had the same fate as February because there was a massive dip in earnings with ‘Endgame’, ‘The Intruder’ and ‘Longshot’, earned a total of N367,498,554.
The reason for the fall: The fall in viewership usually comes after a global holiday, such as Christmas for December/January and Easter for April.
However, by June, the numbers rose with movies views from ‘John Wick’, ‘Godzilla’ and ‘Aladdin’ leading the numbers, supported by ‘Anna’, ‘Men In Black’, ‘Dark Phoenix’ and ‘Bling Lagosians’.
June opened with N161,132,714 but closed with N100,663,647 leading to a total earning of N576,322,779.
[READ FURTHER: Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame beats Titanic’s $2.12bn box office record]
