Nollywood Has Gone Global: Nigerian Filmmakers Must Think and Work Globally
Nollywood has gone global.
We must think and work globally in content and context of telling and sharing our stories in the universal medium of filmmaking for the global audience.
Nigerian filmmakers cannot compete with the best in the world if they continue to think locally and compete locally for the local box office and going over the moon for grossing less than US$2 million for the first time in the 100 years of filmmaking in Nigeria since 1926 to 2026 when South African filmmakers have made films grossing over US$200 in the international box office.
The 2009, sci-fi film "District 9" that grossed US$210.8 million was made by South African-born Canadian film director and screenwriter, Neill Blomkamp and was shot in South Africa; The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980) made more than US$100 million; Adventures in Zambezia ($34.4M); Khumba ($28.4M);Tsotsi ($12M) and Sarafina! ($7.3M). A new film, David (2025), a South African animated film produced by Sunrise Productions, has grossed over US$83.6 million worldwide as of February 6, 2026.
The Nigerian film industry should be inspired by the outstanding success stories of the film industry of South Africa.
South African filmmakers think and work globally with the best in the world.
You cannot see the big picture if you continue to gaze at the miniature of the tableaux.
- EKENYERENGOZI Michael CHIMA. Publisher/Editor, NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series, the first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry.
The trailer of "The American King", a new Hollywood and Nollywood comedy showing in selected cinemas in Nigeria.
Popular NIgerian actress, Shan George in front of Genesis Cinemas in Asaba, Delta State, NIgeria.
Cinemas in Nigeria are losing millions of dollars, because of poor marketing and publicity.
Nigerian film distributors and exhibitors don't seem to have any budget for the marketing and publicity of movies for cinemas in Nigeria rated as the second largest film industry in the world after India for the annual quantity of film productions.
The more marketing promotions for their movies, the more people that will be attracted to watch the movies and increase the population of moviegoers in Nigeria with more sales of tickets.
I have been increasing the attractions of cinemas by having screenings of documentary films for secondary schools at the cinemas since 2013 to date. The secondary school students who were teenagers seven years ago in 2013 are now grown-ups in their 20s and majority of them have graduated from tertiary institutions and gainfully employed with enough disposable incomes to pay for tickets for movies at the cinemas.
Many of them have commended me for their appreciation of the cinema culture.
Film distributors and exhibitors in the established film industries of Hollywood of the United States of America, Bollywood of India, China, UK and South Africa have budgets of millions of dollars for marketing and publicity for movies and their movies have been the highest grossing movies in the world which the NIgerian film industry has not achieved with the thousands of movies produced annually in Nollywood and Kannywood.
South Africa does not produce up to a quarter of the movies produced annually by NIgeria, but has produced the highest grossing movies in Africa with "District 9" grossing US$210.8 million in 200; followed by "The God's Must Be Crazy" - US$100 million; "Zambezia" - US$34.4 million; "Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom" - US$27.3 million; "Khumba )" – $28.42 million (which the producers even reached out to me for the publicity in 2013) and the critically acclaimed "Tsotsi" - $12 million. It was the first African film to win the highly coveted Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (now Best International Feature Film) in 2006.
No NIgerian movie has made up to US$3 million from the box office.
The ready made common reason would be that South Africa has hundreds of cinemas whereas NIgeria has less than 100 cinemas. But the 100 cinemas with about 220 screens can make up to US$3 million monthly with proper marketing and publicity for movies.
The Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) reported that cinemas in Nigeria made N301.48 million from tickets sold across the country in February, 2022
National President of CEAN, Mr. Patrick Lee said this was a tremendous increase compared with N224.34 million made from ticket sales in February, 2021.
UNESCO reported that the African film industry has great potential, but the lack of infrastructure like one cinema screen per 787,402 people makes it a laggard.
According to a new UNESCO report, about 5 million people currently work in the film sector in Africa, which contributes $5 billion to the continent's GDP.
Film distributors and exhibitors in Nigeria should increase their budgets for marketing and publicity of the movies they have accepted for their cinemas. They have to increase the appreciation for cinemas by millions of people in NIgeria from the lower class to the upper class of the society.
Over 60 million Nigerians spend over N730 billion annually on sports betting and at least two billion naira is generated daily according to a recent data with each one spending more than N3, 000 weekly on betting. So, millions of Nigerians have disposable personal income (DPI) to afford paying for tickets for movies at the cinemas.
Nigeria is Still Far Behind South Africa in Film and TV Productions
South Africa has the biggest film industry in Africa, followed by Egypt and Morocco in terms revenues in international film distribution and acquisition.
From the Academy Award winning "Tsotsi" of 2005 directed by Gavin Wood that grossed more than US$11 million from a budget of US$3 million to "District 9" of 2009 directed by Neill Blomkamp that had four nominations for the #Oscars. The film made more than US$210 million from a budget of US$30 million.
There are several other outstanding South African films of global success.
In spite of the popularity of sociocultural phenomenon of Nollywood, the first indie film industry in Africa ranked as the second largest film industry in the world after the Bollywood of India and ahead of Hollywood in the quantity of movies produced annually, we are still waiting for a Nigerian film that can make up to US$5 million from the box office or qualify for nominations at the Academy Awards, Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival.
When it comes to TV, of course the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is more advanced than the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), both in content, programming and administrative management in structure and manpower. Without Multichoice in Nigeria, both the local public and private TV stations are lagging behind South African TV stations. The private TV stations in Nigeria don't produce enough programmes and the programmes are often running without any proper programming. And the programmes have discordant audio caused by bad audio boards or incompetent audio engineers.
No need to discuss the quality of the TV productions with bad sound.
They have badly produced local movies, documentaries and reality TV shows, because of low budgets and insufficient revenues to produce or buy premium content. So, they resort to having cheap content of low quality.
There are more entertainment on some Nigerian blogs than the local private TV channels in Nigeria. And they even compete for bragging rights to winning local TV awards with programmes that cannot be sold internationally.
