In the business of Nigerian cinema, Funke Akindele has become the juggernaut of commercial success juggernauts. The evidence is on the charts. Of the top 10 movies from Nollywood, Akindele is producer of exactly half. In a film industry well-known for its productivity, one producer being responsible for 50% of the highest grossing movies at the cinemas is no joke.
But while Akindele’s success over her compatriots at her national cinemas is well-documented, not a lot has been said about her dominance over Hollywood titles, generally the most visible and lucrative features the world over.
Let’s change that.
Breakout Picture
Since 2020 and across each year Akindele’s films have showed up at the cinemas, she has had to do battle with tentpole movies from the US. She has bested them all to emerge at the top of the box office year after year. In that time, her fiercest competition has been Disney, one of the Big 5 American film studios.
In her breakout year, her major opponent was not Disney, it was Columbia Pictures. That was in 2020, the year the flagship company owned by Sony Pictures (also a Big 5) released Bad Boys For Life, the 3rd installment of the Will Smith and Martin Lawrence vehicle. That film grossed 180m naira. Akindele’s 2020 rival picture, Omo Ghetto: The Saga, generated more than 187m naira according to data from FilmHouse’s Nigeria Box Office Year Book. [Wonder Woman 1984 was at around 100m naira.]
Since then, Akindele has had to contend (mostly) with Disney and its companies.
Avatar 2 vs Battle on Buka Street
In 2021, Disney released Avatar: Way of Water and Akindele released Battle on Buka Street. By the time both ended their runs, the James Cameron dollar-printing machine had put butts in seats to the extent of almost half a billion naira at 433m naira. Akindele blew past the half-billion mark and ended up at over 660m naira. The long-limbed Na’vi were no match for the quarreling restaurant owners of Buka Street.
Aquaman vs A Tribe Called Judah
In 2023, it was earthlings versus the underwater throng. Warner released Aquaman through its DC studios and raked up 536m naira.
Funke Akindele’s holiday picture, A Tribe Called Judah, was released in the same year with perhaps modest expectations. By early 2024, it had become the first film at the cinemas to cross the 1bn naira barrier, an unheard and maybe un-dreamed of gross. Final figure: 1.4b naira. Funke Akindele had bested a Hollywood superhero.
Turns out she was only getting started.
Mufasa vs Everybody Loves Jenifa
By 2024, it would be the first time since Omo Ghetto that Akindele would draw from an earlier character. She produced Everybody Loves Jenifa, a story focused on the titular protagonist, a character known from a previous film at the cinemas as well as by a long-running series on TV and YouTube. As was the case in previous years, her Hollywood competition were not working from an original template. The major Hollywood project that would do exceedingly well was a Disney sequel. Mufasa: The Lion King roared, buoyed by family friendliness and the memory of the beloved 1994 classic.
Barry Jenkins’ Mufasa ended up with 556m naira. Everybody Loves Jenifa breached the 1b naira barrier, earning 1.8b in the process. The film quickly went to the top spot in the list of highest grossing films of all time in Nigeria.
Behind The Scenes vs Avatar 3
That position has now been ceded to the latest project from Funke Akindele. Last year, she went original again with Behind the Scenes. Whatever fears there were about the film’s ability to drum up attention after the lengthy string of Akindele’s successes has been silenced. Last week, the actress-producer-director announced to her over 16m Instagram followers that BTS had crossed the 2bn naira mark.
Once again, she had taken on Disney, which released the Avatar: Fire and Ash sequel last year, and bested the Hollywood giant. According to the report by the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria, by 12 January, Avatar 3 had generated 565m naira while BTS had done 2.17b naira in revenue. Akindele had crossed the 2bn mark and, once again, beaten a super-successful American franchise to do so.
But as both films are still at the cinemas, the gap may yet widen.
