Report: Nigerians spent N3bn in cinemas between January-June

Doosuur Iwambe, Abuja

Current data provided by cinemas and gathered by the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) has revealed that Nigerians spent about N3.1billion to watch box office movies at Nigerian cinemas between January and June.

This figure according to the data is equal to the revenue generated by 34 cinemas throughout 2017.

‘Aquaman’, ‘Chief Daddy’ and ‘Up North’ were the top three movies at the beginning of the year with combined earnings of N168 million.

The movies had maintained their positions until the fourth week when ‘Glass’ debuted at number one, displacing other movies.

This led to combined earnings of N91.4 million which fell to N77 million when January ended.

Reports have it that earnings remained low for February, making it the lowest-grossing month with a total of N291 million.

Top spots were alternated between ‘Alita’, ‘Cold Pursuit’, ‘What Men Want’, ‘Escape Room’ and ‘The UpSide’.

By March, viewership picked up steadily and the earnings were almost doubled from that of February leading to a total of N434 million.

In March, a chunk of the earnings and viewership went to Marvel’s ‘Captain Marvel’.

At the beginning of April, ‘HellBoy’, ‘Shazam’, ‘Little’ and ‘Us’ continued to share the top spot with ‘Captain Marvel’ until the release of ‘Avengers: Endgame’.

With ‘Avengers: Endgame’, earnings from April climbed from N186 million in its third week to N342 million in its final week.

The month, which is the highest-grossing in 2019, closed with estimated total earnings of N734 million.