Nigeria’s box office rakes in N653m in May — highest in 2022

The Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) says it generated N653 million from tickets sold at box office in May.

Patrick Lee, the national chairman of CEAN, was speaking on Tuesday in an interview with NAN.

Lee said when compared with April, May ticket sales improved by about 12 percent. He added that “May is the highest-grossing month in 2022, so far.”

“We had total sales of N653,229,100.00 for the month of May 2022,” he said.

“21 Nollywood films shown in May accounted for 28 percent of total ticket sales.

“14 Hollywood films accounted for about 69 percent, with ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ being the major outlier.

“Comparing April with May, ticket sales improved by about 12 percent, with May being the highest-grossing month in 2022, so far.”

Lee noted that the top five highest-grossing films in May are ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’, ‘King of Thieves’, ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’, ‘The Lost City’, and ‘The Perfect Arrangement’.

He said the films to be released across cinemas in June are ‘Ex and Exes’, ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’, ‘The Order of Things’, ‘Flatus’, ‘Last Seen Alive’, ‘Light Year’, ‘Silent Baron’, ‘Black Phone’, ‘Elvis’, and ‘Ile Owo’.

“It is exciting to see the mind-blowing box office performance of titles released in May,” Lee added.

“‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ led the pack with over N330million to consolidate on the continued monstrous performance of Nollywood’s rave-of-the-moment, ‘King of Thieves’.

“’Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ now holds the record of the strongest weekend opening for
a post-pandemic release in Nigerian cinemas.”

According to Lee, ‘King of Thieves’ is so far the highest-grossing Nollywood film since ‘Omo Ghetto the Saga’.