In Nigeria, some movie stars have
proven again and again that they can
guarantee return on investment as
long as their faces adorn the poster. They are Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola
Jalade-Ekeinde, Omoni Oboli, Funke
Akindele and Nse Ikpe-Etim. Or how else could one explain the
success of box office hits like Mirror
Boy, Ije, and Tango With Me all having
Genevieve Nnaji starring in them? And
what about Figurine and Anchor Baby
which both starred Omoni Oboli as the lead actress? Mirror Boy, Tango With Me, Last Flight
to Abuja and Phone Swap all had
sizeable negative reviews, yet they
topped the box office, made huge
profit and left many Hollywood
movies far behind. Below is a list of Nollywood’s five
bankable actresses, their earnings
and what is possibly working for
them.

Genevieve Nnaji
Topping the list of five is Genevieve
Nnaji. Love or hate her, Genny as she
is fondly called, has a way with
cinema audiences that make them
come back again and again for her
movies. So far, Genevieve’s starring in the
movies has grossed over N83 million at
the box office. Mirror Boy (described
by the actress as her first major film
and the first to put her at the box-
office) made N18 million, while Ije netted N60 million turning out to be
Nigeria’s highest grossing movie ever.
But Genevieve had to share the money
with Omotola, who also acted
alongside her. If the sharing formula
is 50-50, then Genevieve gets N30 million of the total gross. Genevieve’s next movie, Tango with Me
went on to make N35 million. So,
putting all the figures together,
Genny remains at the head of the
pack. What seem to be working for
Genevieve are her enduring power, popularity and social media
connection. The actress has been
there for over a decade and is still
waxing stronger. Her wine seems to
taste better with age. Another plus for Genny is her
popularity. Genevieve is hugely
popular across Africa and most
especially among the youths. Before
now, she has been very active on the
social media especially Twitter. She even had to put up a Facebook
advert after reports emerged that
some acts were ahead of her there.

Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde
Next on the list is Omotola Jalade-
Ekeinde with box-office gross of N60
million. She made N24 million with Last
Flight to Abuja, N6 million from Private
Storm and her N30 million share in Ije
bring her total earning to N60 million. This year alone, no actress has made
as much as N24 million from a single
movie; Funke Akindele would have done
so with The Return of Jenifa but the
movie hit the box office in 2011. Omotola, who was reported to have
been paid N5 million by Tarila
Thompson all in the bid to make his
movie a blockbuster, has been
described as the biggest box office
actress of 2012. She recorded successes back to back but it remains
to be seen if she can pull off the box
office magic again with Amina and
other movies coming in 2013. Omotola has been an A-list actress
even before Genevieve got her first
big break and so what has been
working for her is the wise investment
in her brand. Her enduring presence
and unceasing contact with her fans via the social media has made her
popular even in an environment where
a mother of four like her is not
fashionable.

Funke Akindele
Surprisingly, the third person on the
list is Funke Akindele, a young lady
who rose to fame in I Need To Know, a
TV series, and went on to earn a
monstrous fame with Jenifa. Funke is an unlikely candidate on this
list. Now, how can one explain that she
is third on a list parading heavy
weights like Omoni Oboli, Nse Ikpe-
Etim and Stephanie Okereke among
others? So far, Funke has made over N56
million, netting over N20 million in 2012
alone. In The Return of Jenifa, Funke
netted N35 million. The movie ran till
February 2012. Her movie, Married but
Living Single made N9.9 million while Maami made N11 million. The actress is
on her way to another cinema glory
with a movie, A Wish. Let’s hope she
will be able to wave the magical wand
again and create a box-office
success. For Funke who recently got married,
the plus factor for her is her huge
popularity among the masses and
elites. Her movie, Jenifa cuts across all social
groups with the street parlance in it
becoming the mode of communication
in social gathering. And as an icing on
the cake, Funke has moved upscale,
she is now the toast of events organized by the rich and not so rich.
Her box office credibility transcends
the cinema as all DVDs parading her
face turn into gold.
Omoni Oboli

Omoni Oboli, who is still largely
unknown to those who don’t
patronise the cinema and social
media, is fourth on the list. She is a
silent achiever. Before the trio of
Genevieve, Omotola and Funke even dreamt of hitting the box office,
Omoni Oboli already took the lead.
Figurine, her first box office
appearance made N13 million while
her second effort, Anchor Baby made
N18 million bringing her total earning to N31million. Omoni’s strength is her exclusivity and
knack for quality. It is a known fact
that if the project is not big and
ambitious, Omoni might not do it. The
disadvantage of that is, despite her
box office credibility, Omoni is still unknown in areas where there is no
access to cinemas. Perhaps, that is
the reason she tries to make up with
the red carpet presence. For now, the exclusivity is working for
Omoni; perhaps her new movie, Broken
and other works will introduce a new
twist. One other thing that should not
be forgotten is the unprecedented
publicity of Anchor Baby in 2010. The film also had Omoni at the forefront
of meeting and greeting of fans at
the cinemas.

Nse Ikpe-Etim
The fifth slot belongs to Nse Ikpe-
Etim. She seems to be the latest
sensation in big budget movies. In Mr
and Mrs, Nse was a delight, her
performance was a reference point
and it was a hook that kept drawing people to the cinema while the movie
was there. Mr and Mrs made N6 million while
another of her film, Phone Swap made
N20 million, making a total of N26
million. Too early for Nse to cement her place,
as she hasn’t done N15 million back-
to-back but one thing the actress
has made clear is that she has
intention of doing that. The leading
four acts should be afraid of Nse because her strength lies in her pure
acting talent. Nse is born to act, deemed to be
unnecessarily assertive a times, but
you can’t accuse her of not knowing
her lines. And she pushes her movies
with virgour, moving from one cinema
to the other.
www.247nigerianewsupdate.com/top-5-richest-nollywood-actresses/

Gud 2 knw and thanx 4 ur info, we'll tak it into acct

Why are they all ladies
I suspect something fishy

chuckdee4: Why are they all ladies
I suspect something fishy

Yes, your reasoning faculty is fishy. Actresses are ladies

what of NL mods girlfriend Tonto Dike??!!

jmoore:

Yes, your reasoning faculty is fishy. Actresses are ladies

Really fishy

chuckdee4: Why are they all ladies
I suspect something fishy

No be only fishy na meaty.

homesteady: what of NL mods girlfriend Tonto Dike??!!

Haha . I still dey look for the 'Tonto Dikeh' frontpage story

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