Despite an increase in movie attendance, the Nigerian box office saw a 15% drop in income last month.
Opeyemi Ajayi, the chairperson of the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN), told NAN that N482 million in income was produced across all cinemas in July.
Ajayi also revealed that in the month under review, the overall viewer admittance in theaters across the federation was 218,395.
According to the CEAN chairman, theatres saw a small uptick in patronage in July due to the month’s multiple public holidays.
He encouraged more Nigerians to consider visiting the cinemas during their leisure to unwind.
“We recorded a total sales of N482,528,117 for July with 218,395 viewers in the cinemas,” he said.
“The cinemas are not doing bad but we encourage more Nigerians to cultivate the habit of visiting the cinemas.”
The top movie selections for August in Nigerian cinemas include ‘Akuddaya’, ‘Meg 2’, ‘Teenage Mutant Minja’, ‘A Bag of Trouble’, ‘Blue Beetle’, ‘Mikolo’, ‘The Modern Woman’, ‘Retribution’, and ‘Kesari’.
The figure generated in July is lower than the N567 million realised in June.
The N482 million raked in from the box office last month is a 14.98% decrease when compared to that of June.
In contrast, the total viewer admission in cinemas (218,395) in July was 3.85% higher than in June (210,299).
Nigerian cinemas struggled with hardships earlier in the year — owing to naira scarcity, which significantly impacted financial stability.
In January, revenue peaked at N819 million, plummeting to N278 million by February.
Consecutive months mirrored this trend, with May’s earnings trailing April by N52 million.
