Nigerian box office makes N301m in Feb 2022 — 34.4% revenue growth

The Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) says it recorded N301.48 million from tickets sold across the country in February.

Patrick Lee, CEAN’s national president, disclosed the figure in a chat with NAN on Friday.

Lee said the revenue generated within the said month was a tremendous increase compared with N224.34 million realised from ticket sales in February 2021.

This represents ticket sales revenue growth of 34.4 percent year-over-year.

“In spite of the usual decline in attendance in February, box office revenue for 2022 was 26 percent higher than the amount recorded in the comparative period of 2021. Attendance is within similar range at 185,000,” Lee said.

“Films such as ‘Uncharted’, ‘Dinner at My Place’, ‘Blacklight’, ‘Before Valentine’s’, ‘Head Over Bills’ and ‘Marry Me’, amongst others, drove the numbers.

“This has so far, helped cinemas stay afloat in preparation for the spike from March when ‘The Batman’ would open strictly in cinemas,” he said.

Lee said the top five highest-grossing films in Nigeria for February and the admission rate were ‘Uncharted’ (N49,109m); ‘Dinner at My Place’ (N21,448m); ‘Blacklight’ (N10,767m); ‘Before Valentine’s’ (N12,315m) and ‘Spiderman: No Way Home’ (N11,844m).

He said 70 percent of the films exhibited in cinemas in February were from Hollywood while Nollywood accounted for 30 percent.

Lee also disclosed that the films to be released into the cinemas in the month of March are ‘The American King’; ‘The Batman’; ‘Boycott’, ‘Turning Red’; ‘Dejavu’; ‘Mama’s Big Stick’; ‘The Contractor’; ‘Rising Sun’; ‘Obsession’; ‘Ambulance’ and ‘A Simple Lie’.

“March opens with exciting expectations at the box office, as Robert Pattinson is set to deliver screen brilliance in his first performance as Bruce Wayne of Gotham city in the blockbuster ‘The Batman’,” he added.

“The character was last played as a single lead in 2005 by Christian Bale, and later, Ben Affleck gave a sensational account of the Gotham city billionaire/super-hero in 2016’s ‘Batman vs Superman’ and 2017’s ‘Justice League’.

“Will Pattinson deliver the nostalgia akin to Bruce Wayne’s wittiness, or would he be unveiling an absolutely different side to the character than who DC fans are used to? We will all get to see.”