Cinema revenues dip by 70% in February 2022 to ₦190m as ‘Uncharted’ dominates

Roses are red; love is absent; violets are blue, but where’s the money? February 14 this year saw people spend less money as they would on days like that, such that cinema lovers were left in the cold, recording a 70% dip (₦190,993,178) of the revenue they made in January.

This is according to a report made by the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) on its website for the month.

The report indicates that cinema houses across the country grossed the highest revenue between Friday, February 18 and 24. This is unexpected as valentines day (14) fell on a Monday and most people had to postpone outings until the following weekend.

The report indicated that the American action-adventure film, Uncharted dominated the Nigerian box office for three out of four weeks in February as moviegoers spent a gross accumulation of over ₦46,693,988 million on its tickets. The movie was produced by Sony studios and mainly distributed by Filmone.

This is the second movie by the same producer that will be dominating the space in 2022. Spiderman: No Way Home dominated the Nigerian box office in January as moviegoers spent a gross accumulation of over ₦636.2 million on movie tickets.  Empire’s Moonfall and Sony’s Spiderman retained the second and third positions.

Sony Studios have continued to make significant revenue from the Nigerian market. The company grossed a total of ₦97,542,656 in February. This is a 46% decline from the ₦212,153,240 it grossed in January to retain its top position, which began last week of December 2021.

The cause for this significant decline is yet to be ascertained. The only plausible factor is the lack of a major movie release within the month. Uncharted action-adventure film directed by Ruben Fleischer from a screenplay by Rafe Lee Judkins, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway seems to be unable to pull the same load of interest the Spiderman series has grossed.

Operators hope that the new The Batman sequel will re-awaken waning interest.

Nollywood movies performed poorly

As much as Hollywood films faired poorly in Nigerian cinemas in February, their Nollywood counterparts fared well below their performance in January too. The industry’s top-grossing movie was Before Valentine’s with a total earning of ₦5,466,950 in one week.

The was the highest any Nigerian movie garnered in the month too. Other Nollywood movies that made notable earnings in the month include Dinner at my place, Head over bills, Luckily unfortunate and Cake.

The weekly report also indicated that movies that made impressive runs in December are beginning to experience a wane in viewers’ interest. These include Christmas in Miami which raked in 127,608,800 naira is completely off the chart. And,  Filmone’s Aki & Paw Paw, which was in its second month of viewing at the box office came in at the near bottom.