Decades after, Nollywood swims in unfulfilled greatness

The Nigerian film industry (known as Nollywood), rated as the third most valuable film industry in the world, is filled with prospects but has yet to realise its full potential.

In terms of output, Nollywood is the second-biggest in the world, behind Bollywood. At its peak, it produced an average of 50 movies per week, though of lower technical quality.

During Nollywood’s golden age in the first decade of the new Millennium, Nigerian actors enjoyed unrivalled fame on the continent. The likes of RMD, Genevieve, Omotola, Jim Iyke, Aki, Pawpaw, and others were household names across sub-Saharan Africa.

Today, as it was yesterday, Nollywood’s potential is apparent. A recent statistic released by PwC revealed that Nigeria’s entertainment sector will be worth $15 billion in 2025 if properly harnessed.

Similarly, the Chief Executive Officer of First Generation Mortgage Bank (FGMB), Dr. Young-Tobi Ekechi, in a speech titled, “Nollywood: A Rising Pillar in Nigeria’s Socio-economic Development,” at the closing session of the 2022 Nollywood Technology and Security Summit, asserted that the country’s film industry has a financial value of over $6.4 billion, making it one of the fastest-growing film industries in the globe and one of Nigeria’s biggest employers of labour.

Most recently, the Director General of the World Trade Organisation, WTO, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was the former Minister of Finance, while speaking at the Governors Forum in Abuja on Monday, May 15, 2023, affirmed that “Nollywood is one of the world’s fastest-growing creative industries, worth $6.4 billion in 2021 and growing at 10% per

year.”

Without any doubt, the indices of greatness are evident.

Yet, there is a cause for concern because, on the other hand, Nollywood’s influence seems to be waning, its intensity and aura diminishing.

A number of developments are silently eroding its power and influence, thereby threatening the economics of the film industry.

Piracy

This has been an old nemesis of Nollywood and indeed the creative industry in Nigeria. Once upon a time, some film producers used to storm the streets and raid identified piracy hotspots, such as Alaba Market in Lagos, to confront the sellers of pirated CDs and DVDs. Nonetheless, there was no end to their frustration as pirated copies of their films continued to flood the streets unabated. According to the World Bank, only one of every 10 Nigerian films sold is legitimate.

This scourge of piracy was what forced Nollywood to seek alternative outlets, including theatrical releases and video-on-demand options.

In other climes, DVD and Blu-ray discs still exist and rake in revenue for filmmakers. For instance, by December 25, 2022, Maverick: Top Gun had recorded 829, 831 DVD sales worth $15, 671, 902 in just 18 weeks. In Nigeria, unfortunately, piracy has effectively nixed the option of CD or DVD release for Nollywood. As a result, the industry is denied what should have been its biggest means of profitability.

The other guaranteed source of revenue is the box office. India has over 9, 000 cinema screens, and America has at least

5, 798. That is why films are profitable in those countries. Nigeria has a paltry 68 cinemas, with almost half in Lagos State. Therefore, Nollywood will not make the box office revenues that define successful film industries.

Growing clout of reality TV

While reality TV is not in direct conflict with Nollywood, it has, however, eaten into the dominance Nollywood once had over the viewing time of the audience, especially the younger generation.

The Big Brother Naija (BBN) franchise, for example, has, over the past seven years, waxed stronger to become the king of TV programmes in Nigeria.

The show holds the Nigerian audience spellbound for an average of 71 to 99 days, during which time there is hardly any cinematic release or television soap opera that can compete with it for attention. The bottom line is that it is inconceivable to release any movie while BBN is ongoing and expect the movie to make waves.

According to Victoria Danlami, a banker in Abuja who described herself as a “film addict”: “Some 15 years ago, we used to keep tabs on what movies were recently released every week. But these days, there is so much to watch on TV and social media. I look forward to BBN more than any new movies.”

Another respondent, Dele Ejiko, an architect, claimed: “We remember BBN housemates better than new faces in Nollywood. These past three years, for example, names such as Dorathy Bachor, Nengi, Erica, Saga, Angel Smith, Cross, and Liquorose ring a bell with me and likeminded others more

than the names of new actors in Nollywood.”

Rise of skit-making

Some 30 or 20 years ago, skits were rare. Today, skit-making is the biggest thing in audiovisual creativity. A booming craft, it is lucrative to the point that it is challenging Nollywood’s creativity, prolificity, and profitability.

Dataleum, in March 2022, listed skit-making as Nigeria’s third-largest entertainment industry, worth N50 billion. It has grown even bigger in the past year. The likes of Mr Macaroni, Broda Shaggy, Taaoma, and a host of others, including teenagers like Kiriku, have all achieved fame and fortune that are beyond those of some Nollywood actors. Presently, they have starpowers that rival those of regular actors. For example, previously, brand ambassadorship went to actors; these days, skit makers are favourites for brand deals.

What’s more, some of them are talents that should have naturally gone to Nollywood. For instance, Macaroni, a trained thespian and occasional actor, and Taaooma, whose journey into skitmaking started with her interest in video editing, ended up on the comedy skit side of the entertainment divide. The glitz and glamour that used to belong exclusively to being an actor has also become the preserve of skitmakers. This has influenced new-breed creatives to channel their talent into skit-making instead of heading to Nollywood.

Although there has been a strong symbiosis between skit-makers and Nollywood actors, it is ultimately to the benefit of the former.

“I’d be excited to hear that my favourite skit-maker is in a new movie,” said Elizabeth Okoye, an entrepreneur and a

movie buff.

What if a popular actor is in a skit?

“It doesn’t excite me that much,” she said.

That simple statement tells where the soft power lies now between filmmaking and skitmaking.

Streaming services

With pirates’ stranglehold on VCD and DVD sales and the challenges of limited cinema screens, Nollywood found a lease of life in streaming services, especially Netflix, which serves as a bulwark against pirates.

Netflix has opened doors for new filmmakers like Kemi Adetiba, who produced The Wedding Party and the King of Boys series, and Linda Ikeji, a blogger and entrepreneur whose first attempt at filmmaking was Dark October.

Presently, there are over 100 Nollywood films on Netflix. While a few do not impress, some of them are critically acclaimed.

Nollywood’s growing dominance on Netflix, however, doesn’t mean it is prospering by global standards.

This much was conveyed by Chima Ude, the founder of the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), who said in an interview: “A movie executive once told me that Netflix pays people here much less for their movies because we do not put in as much as people from other countries. There is no story development, no set building, and no sound stage. There are many other structures that we don’t make use of when making movies here.”

Ude, introspectively, reflected: “Have we made great films? We have. But are they of global standards? No.”

Exit of Ghallywood

In its heyday, Nollywood was a combination of Nigerian actors and their Ghanaian counterparts, with the likes of Majid Michel, John Dumelo, Jackie Appiah, Nadia Buari, and Yvonne Nelson being very popular with the Nigerian audience.

As the biggest and most commercially viable film platform in Africa, it was not difficult to understand the fraternity between the two industries.

Today, Ghanaian actors have exited almost completely from the Nigerian market, save for occasional collaborations. Ghallywood has raised the quality of its cinematography, and its technical quality poses a strong challenge to Nollywood.

All things considered, the future portends greatness for Nollywood.

But to become a de facto colossus, Nigeria’s Tinseltown needs to up its game. Experienced hands are still around and active; there’s no shortage of talent, and the industry is trying hard to reinvent itself.

Nollywood reaching the peak of its potential requires two things: the first is raising the technical quality of its films to global standards; the second is the continuous injection of investment into the industry.