NOLLYWOOD’S BILLIONS
If I had a dollar for every time I have heard the word “billion” in the last year whether it is a situation-gate, a Nigerian artiste claiming that’s what he/she is worth (not true), the budget of a Nigerian movie or the cost of some celebrity’s house, a new money miss road somebody, an ill-advised PR stunt and its subject or over hearing some individuals bragging about their latest contract; I would have a nice spot in the next Forbes new billionaires in the world article. To be clear, I mean billion in dollars… thank you! However we will discuss my hopefully new net worth soon, but not today.
Today we delve into the wonderful world of the make belief industry in Nigeria, Nollywood! I’ve been asked severally if I think Nollywood will ever get to global status, my answer is always in the affirmative as it is happening already, all we need left is that one film from Nollywood to win or at least get nominated for an Oscar or rake in the kind of sales at the box office that will make the world sit up and take a closer look at its viability.
Nollywood has changed; Nollywood is here to stay and it makes sense to not only acknowledge that but also see the opportunities therein and literally jump on it! The Nigerian film industry (Nollywood) has come a long way from being the solution to what to do with a thousand blank VHS tapes. It is a welcome disruption that has created a whole new culture and eco system that cannot and should not be ignored. Nollywood as an industry is a money-maker as with its counterparts all over the world. California as a state, had a GDP equivalent to the fifth richest country thanks to entertainment, most especially Hollywood and now Silicon Valley.
Every week I am aware of at least two to three productions going on in several locations in Nigeria, meaning there are people who are being employed on a daily basis and new talent being discovered thanks to this industry. The industry has taken a bashing from being labelled a microwave film industry for making movies (some have claimed) in three days to a week on a shoestring budget, the quality of production being under par and piracy ravaging the industry, the list goes on and I do hope we can address some of the myths of Nollywood in this article, I will do my best to proffer what I believe are solutions to making some headway in getting the Nigerian film industry to the next level.
Distribution: Where demand is higher than supply, what is likely to happen? That is the situation we face in Nigeria as regards content and when people cannot get their hands on a product that should be readily available to them commercially, the smart ones (pirates) seize the opportunity and satisfy the customer. We need a fluid and vibrant distribution network that can get as many copies of a movie into the hands of the audience in good time and within reach. I remember a while ago a very popular Nigerian movie was released on DVD and the advert mentioned that it was available everywhere, just to test this I asked someone to pop into the nearest neighbourhood store to get me a copy, I wasn’t surprised when they turned up empty handed.
Distribution is a challenge and an opportunity for the industry, you cannot whet people’s appetite with a seemingly compelling story and attractive product and then “fall their hand” by not delivering on their promise. The good thing is that there are various channels of distribution available to the film-maker now (physical and digital distribution). They just need to apply some innovative thinking in ensuring that the consumers’ needs are met.
Marketing: Star Wars the force Awakens has made over $2 billion at the international box office, asides being a hugely successful and record breaking franchise (it hit $1 Billion in first twelve days of release), it had excellent execution of marketing. The marketing for this movie started eighteen months before it hit the cinemas. Nollywood has a thing or two to learn from this. Most film-makers in Nigeria think it starts and ends with making a movie forgetting that they need to sell the movie to the audience to drive them to watch the movie in droves at the cinema or in their homes (streaming or DVD). Most Hollywood producers will tell you that marketing (promotions and advertising) of their movie takes up 30-50% of the budget of the movie.
By the way, the movie Fifty got it right on so many angles in terms of their marketing, little wonder it racked in N20,000,000 at the box office in the first week of its release.
Franchise: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, milk it. Have you noticed that some of the most successful movies in the last decade or so have been franchises? The Marvel Cinematic Universe series of superhero films including Iron Man, The Avengers and Thor: The Dark World, is the most successful movie franchise, grossing a grand total of $2.95 billion at the North American box office. Harry Potter comes close with $2.4 billion, while Star Wars rounds off the top three with $1.92 billion. Fast & Furious made $1.2 billion and have recently signed a contract to produce and release 3 more instalments to be released in 2017, 2019 and 2021. Can you imagine what a franchise on Osuofia, Aki & Pawpaw, Okon Lagos would be like?. It seems AY the comedian and Jenifa seem to have keyed in to this formula with spin-offs and continuation of brands they have made popular; Akpos and Jenifa. It is time we have movies on our own Nigerian super heroes, wouldn’t you agree?
Major Export: While we are looking to export tomatoes, ugu, pencils, toothpicks and ‘made in Nigeria’ cars in the near future, let us also reach for the low hanging fruits, Nigerian creative content. It has been proven without a doubt that Nigerian entertainment happens to be one of the most exported and consumed commodities; the only problem is there isn’t proper record keeping or measurement tool for this. I have met several people especially in francophone Africa; have confessed to learning “English” by watching Nollywood movies. I have witnessed Nollywood A,B and C-listers being swarmed and called by name by their fans in other African countries, as they either made appearances or shopping in the mall.
You see, the way Amitabh Bachchan is a hero up north, is how Igwe Olu Jacobs is a rock star in Nairobi, Kenya.
Screens are King too!
There are 770 Cinemas in the UK, with a total of 3,569 screens; in the U.S. movie screens as of December 2014 were 39,356 indoor screens in 5,463 cinemas and 656 Drive-In screens. Now for the baba nla of them all, China added 5,000 screens in 2013 alone! The number of cinema screens in China increased almost 20 fold since 2007, from 3,527 screens in 2007 to 23,592 screens in 2014 and in 2015, the gross box office in China was over ¥44 billion (US$6.78 billion), with domestic films having a share of 61.6%, think about that for a minute. If you still wonder why Hollywood is running to china maybe it is because most of their box office monster hits have reached the billion dollar mark thanks to the Chinese cinemas and Chinese firms are making major moves into Hollywood sizing and buying up major production companies over there.
Nigeria has less than 40 cinemas, this is not even enough to cater to one percent of its 180,000,000 populace, is this not a huge shame? I am told that there was a time Nigeria had at least 5,000 cinemas. Imagine if 1% of the population had access to cinemas at an affordable rate of maybe two hundred naira; Nollywood movies will hit the billionnaira mark easily. Until we have a healthy and robust theatre network, Nollywood wont look so attractive to the west. We need to pull in the right numbers for them to fall over themselves to get a piece of the pie.
This is the time to revamp or introduce community cinemas, where people can go and watch movies at an affordable rate. I am aware of make shift theatres or screens in places like Kano where every evening you see an array of motorbikes in a particular compound; I had noticed this several evenings on my last trip to the city which made me ask my host what was going on as it was after evening prayers, he calmly informed me that there were cinemas showing Bollywood movies, which were a favourite over there.
There is an audience that needs to be serviced! They do not necessarily need an air-conditioned ‘ultra-modern’ structure. Just make it comfortable, accessible, affordable and watch the money roll in.
Nollywood is a worthy investment if you know what you are doing and are talking to the right people. If the industry wasn’t so lucrative and viable, why are people still making movies? Why has DSTV’s Africa Magic grown from one channel to several, catering to the various needs of this insatiable audience? Why do Afrinolly, Iroko TV and more exist? If there wasn’t a demand or even an audience that has ‘needs’ none of these people will be in business.
Did you know?
•India’s movie industry gross only $2
billion per year at the box office? With tickets being sold at the equivalent of US$2.25 to $3.80.
•Global box office hit all-time high of $38bn
in 2015
• The Bollywood movie, Kismet was such
a big blockbuster that it was one of the first movies to run straight in the theatre for three years (not a good idea in Nigeria today).
Bongos Ikwe’s famous song asked, “will we ever get there, will we ever make it?” if you ask me? When we do the right thing (with permission from film-maker Spike Lee), my answer? Absolutely!