Cinema operators in Nigeria announced a huge drop in sales for February as sales fall to N278 million compared with N819 million in January.
This was disclosed by the National Chairman of the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN), Mr Ope Ajayi, during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos,
Ajayi also revealed gross admission within the period under review was 122,295
Impact of naira Scarcity: The report said the Operators blamed the cash crunch and poor network service delivery being experienced by POS operators nationwide for the decline in sales, which was also impacted by the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
- “A couple of reasons are responsible for the drop in sales. We lost a weekend of sales during the Presidential and National Assembly elections, Nigerians’ attention was focused on voting across the country.
- “Cash crunch and POS failures, affecting trading generally are also affecting the cinemas.
- “Many movie producers and distributors avoided releasing movies during the election period. So, the content was also somewhat limited,” he said.
The top films exhibited in cinemas across the country in February were “Antman” and “Love in a pandemic”.
What you should know: Nigerian cinema operators generated total revenue of N6.94 billion in 2022, against revenue of N4.74 billion in 2021.
They added that Nigeria’s movie industry continues to lead the recovery in Africa post-COVID pandemic. saying:
“The box office raked in N4.74 billion in 2021, N2.1 billion in 2020, N6.4 billion in 2019, and N5.98 billion in 2018. For 2022, the increase in average ticket price led to revenue growth and admissions remained flat in the previous year.”
