Top 20 Highest Grossing Nigerian Films- As ‘The Wedding Party’ Drives Nollywood to New Heights….

March 25, 2017

By Dapo Oshiyemi

23rd March, 2017

The Nigerian Film industry popularly known as ‘Nollywood’ has taken another step towards becoming one of the world’s most important film industry’s, with ‘The Wedding Party’ a Romantic Comedy starring Adesua Etomi & Banky W, taking $1.5m (N454m) at the Nigerian box office. This makes the Wedding Party the highest grossing film in Nigeria to date, ahead of its closest Hollywood rival ‘Fast and Furious 7’ at $1.2m. No doubt Nollywood has come a long way in just 20 odd years, from its humble beginnings as a small cottage industry in the 1990’s producing films with fuzzy pictures and epileptic sound to the $3.1bn powerhouse it is today.

Banky W & Adesua Etomi in the Wedding Party

But what makes ‘The Wedding Party’s feat so remarkable is the fact that during 2016 the Naira collapsed against the US Dollar by 85% and Nigeria fell into a deep recession with its GDP tumbling from a high of $569 billion in 2015 to $481 billion in 2016. In fact, if the Wedding Party had been released in 2015 the same year as Fast and Furious 7, it’s Box office take would be around $2.7m today. Furthermore the whole of Nigeria has just 135 screens, serving a population of nearly 190m people, which is the largest population in Africa and the 7^th largest in the world, compare those screen ratios with South Africa which has 800 screens serving a population of 55m and the UK which has 3,947 screens serving a population of 65m, all this tells us that, Nigeria’s film industry has enormous potential for domestic growth.

Now, it is a well known fact that Nigerian films are watched earnestly all over the world, fuelled by an estimated 15m plus Nigerians scattered across the globe, so one doesn’t have to be a genius to work out Nollywood’s prospects for sustained and explosive International growth to add to its huge domestic potential.

Top 20 Highest Grossing Nigerian Films.

Rank	Title	Year	Box office ($)	Director
1	The Wedding Party	2016	$1.5m	Kemi Adetiba
2	30 Days in Atlanta	2014	$873,885	Robert Peters
3	A Trip To Jamaica	2016	$569,610	Robert Peters
4	Fifty	2015	$553,121	Biyi Bandele
5	Ijé– The Journey	2010	$398,667	Chineze Anyaene
6	Half of a Yellow Sun	2013	$382,165	Biyi Bandele
7	October 1	2014	$292,993	Kunle Afolayan
8	Tango with Me	2010	$258,064	Mahmood Ali-Balogun
9	76	2016	$229,117	Izu Ojukwu
10	The Return of Jenifa	2012	$221,519	Muhydeen S. Ayinde
11	Wives on Strike	2016	$214,161	Omoni Oboli
12	The CEO	2016	$203,660	Kunle Afolayan
13	The Figurine	2009	$200,000	Kunle Afolayan
14.	Road to Yesterday	2015	$176,470	Ishaya Bako
15	Last Flight to Abuja	2012	$152,866	Obi Emelonye
16	Flower Girl	2013	$146,000	Michelle Bello
17	Weekend Getaway	2012	$144,906	Desmond Elliot
18	Taxi Driver: Oko Ashewo	2015	$133,118	Daniel Oriahi
19	Phone Swap	2012	$131,098	Kunle Afolayan
20	Anchor Baby	2010	$120,000	Lonzo Nzekwe

Box office figures were calculated based on Central Bank of Nigeria exchange rates the year the film was released. Information used in calculating the Box offices figures was obtained from Distributors and exhibitors.

Ije- The Journey Tango with Me

The Box office performance of Ije- The Journey (5^th) and Tango with Me (8^th) is well worth mentioning because both films were released in 2010 and at the time Nigeria only had seven screens in the whole Country.