Nollywood against Hollywood!
American and Indian film industries, Hollywood and Bollywood have a competitor: Nollywood. Nigerian film industry captured attention in the global movie sector with its creativity and productivity. Nollywood had a great part of the movie sector with over 2 thousand films in the last 4 years.
Indian film industry in Mumbai known as Bollywood had started to compete with Hollywood, the centre of American film sector, and surpassed it in the last years in terms of the number of movies. However, Bollywood, which became a success with songs and dances,could not hold on to the throne for long. The industry that dethroned Bollywood came from Africa: Nigeria, the land of the new king. The film sector located in capital Abuja is called “Nollywood”.
Outrivaled the Unites States
According to UNESCO’s numbers in 2010, 872 feature-length films are shot in Nollywood annually. The number of films shot in India is 1091. American producers deliver 485 films annually. Currently, Nollywood surpassed Hollywood by a long shot. Nigerian film sector’s budget exceeds millions (more than two million a year) including videos.
Worth 250 million euros
First studios in Nigeria have been founded in the 1940s. Local production started to rise at the end of the 1980s, the era of the videocassette. In 1992, a local film called “Living in Bondage” directed by Chris Obi Rapu sold more than 100 thousand tickets in its opening week, which was seen as a sign of a the country’s great potential. Nowadays, there are 300 studios in capital Abuja and Lagos which produce 50 thousand film copies weekly. Nollywood is worth 250 million euros annually. IkoroAbaeze is one of the most productive directors of Nigerian cinema. Seeing this potential many years ago and investigating Nollywood on site, Post reporter Neely Tucker Tucker describes this breakthrough of Nigerian cinema by saying, “This is a very special popular revolution concerning creativity.”
Half of a Yellow Sun
The film with the biggest budget in 2013 was “Half of a Yellow Sun”, based on the novel of the same name by ChimamandaNgoziAdichie.The film that was shot with an estimated budget of $9 million is set during the Nigerian civil war of the 1960s. Another big budget Nollywood film is “Anchor Baby” with a budget of $200 thousand. Produced by LonzoNzekwe, the film tells the story of a couple living illegally in the United States. Film budgets vary between one and ten thousand euros in Nigeria. According to Nigerian Film Association, 4 thousand 425 movies were shot in video format. 44 percent of these are in English, 31 percent in Yoruba, 24 percent in Hausa and 1.1 percent in Igbo.
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