Nigeria’s box office rakes in N363m for June — lowest in 2022

Nigeria’s box office made N363 million in ticket sales across all cinemas for the month of June.

Ope Ajayi, national president of Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN), spoke to NAN in Lagos.

He said the decline was due to increased rainfall and fuel scarcity in June which discouraged cinema patronage.

Ajayi said he’s optimistic that July sales would surpass the previous months.

“There was a decline in ticket sales comparing the month of May with June, as May had total ticket sales of N653,229,100.00 as against N363,274,99.00 for June,” the CEAN executive said.

“Ticket sales dropped by about 44 percent, with June being the least performing month in 2022 so far. 20 Nollywood films shown in June accounted for 28 percent of total ticket sales.

“14 films, Hollywood films accounted for about 70 percent, with ‘Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom’ and ‘Topgun Maverick’ being the major outliers.

“And comparing ticket sales in June 2022 (N363,274,999.00) with 2021 (N381,993,015.00 ), box office revenue dropped year-on-year by 5 percent for the month of June while attendance dropped by 36 percent.

“However, with the highly anticipated release of ‘Thor Love and Thunder’, there tends to be a spike in patronage in the month of July. It is exciting to see the mind-blowing box office performance of titles released in June.”

Ajayi revealed that the top five highest-grossing films in June were ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’, ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, ‘The Lost City’, and ‘The Perfect Arrangement’.

He said the movies to be released in the cinemas in the month of July are ‘Survivors’, ‘Minion: Rise of GRV’, ‘Yahoo Plus’, ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’, ‘Vanity’, and ‘The Gray Man’.

Others are ‘Money Miss Road’, ‘Nope’, ‘Tiger’s Tail’, ‘Choke’, ‘League of Super Pets’, and ‘Hey You’.

“As anticipated, ‘Jurassic World Dominion’ led the park with over N88 million within a date range, to consolidate on the continued monstrous performance of ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’,” Ajayi added.

“This month, the train moves to Hollywood again, piloted by Walt Disney and Marvel who are bringing us the fourth instalment of the Thor franchise ‘Thor Love and Thunder’.”