Your Excellency, Merry Men 2, Sugar Rush Outshine Hollywood Movies in Cinemas

James Amuta, an award-winning documentary filmmaker is so proud of Nollywood right now. His adoration for Nigeria's film industry which has grown in leaps and bounds in the last decade stemmed from the recent box-office outcomes of Nigerian films. In a social media post, Amuta named the Nollywood movies that have fared very well in cinemas during the coveted Christmas release window than popular Hollywood movies.
They include Your Excellency, the EbonyLife Film production directed by Funke Akindele-Bello and Merry Men 2: Another Mission, the sequel to the popular Merry Men: The Real Yoruba Demons. According to the renowned filmmaker, both films crossed the N100 million mark in the second week of their run in theatres. Sugar Rush, the Jade Osiberu produced film about three young ladies who stumble across $800,000 (N288.8 million) and decided to spend it all, only to land in EFCC net, also made his list. Amuta disclosed that the film made N57 million on its opening weekend while the sequel to the Nollywood classic Living in Bondage made N150 million in cinemas. Compared to other Hollywood blockbusters such as Jumanji, Star Wars : The Rise of Skywalker which respectively made N165 million in three weeks and N21 million after two weeks, Amuta believes that the Nollywood movies did far better.


"Sugar Rush made double of Star Wars box office earnings in less than three days," he writes.
Another Hollywood movie which failed to grab millions like the Nollywood films is the Disney film Frozen 2, despite the marketing buzz that heralded it. The film ended with N107 million after spending six weeks in cinemas.


Amuta concluded that the long held myth that Nigerian movies do not attract much audience has been demystified. "From a business point of view, Nollywood has proved that it can hold its own against its foreign counterparts in our domestic box office. What the industry needs now is more investment in infrastructure to provide more cinemas, more investment in production, training and more faith in Nollywood from critics."

Nollywood!!! The only thing that makes many of us to still have hope in Nigeria.