Nollywood’s record-breaking box office performance in 2025 may represent major financial growth for the industry, but it also highlights a striking reality: modern Nigerian cinema is reaching far fewer people than the old home-video era did.
Nigeria’s box office generated a record N15.6 billion in 2025, representing a 34.72 per cent increase from the N11.58 billion recorded in 2024.
Nollywood also claimed 49.4 per cent of the country’s cinema market, narrowly overtaking Hollywood, which accounted for 48.8 per cent.
While the figures are impressive, the number of Nigerians who actually went to the cinema tells a different story.
The country recorded about 2.79 million cinema admissions from 122 cinemas during the year. Compared with Nigeria’s population of more than 230 million, that represents only a small fraction of the population.
This is a sharp contrast to the old Nollywood era, when films distributed through VCDs, video clubs, roadside vendors and informal networks could reach millions of Nigerians across different regions and income groups.
The difference between the two eras, therefore, is not necessarily the quality of filmmaking. Modern Nollywood has made considerable progress in cinematography, sound, production quality and acting.
The bigger difference is access.
Old Nollywood was built around mass distribution. New Nollywood has increasingly become dependent on cinemas and streaming platforms that require consumers to pay considerably more to watch films.
Higher Ticket Prices, Limited Growth in Attendance
The increase in box-office revenue has also been driven by rising ticket prices.
Industry data showed that the average cinema ticket increased from about N4,341 in 2024 to N5,596 in 2025, while admissions remained around 2.7 million to 2.8 million.
In other words, the industry made significantly more money without seeing a comparable increase in the number of people attending cinemas.
The situation has become even more challenging in 2026, with average ticket prices reportedly reaching about N8,500 in some locations.
For Nigerians earning the national minimum wage of N70,000 per month, a single cinema ticket represents a significant portion of monthly income.
A family outing becomes even more expensive when transport, food, drinks and other expenses are added.
As a result, cinema is increasingly becoming a premium form of entertainment rather than an activity available to the average Nigerian family.
Cinema Access Remains Concentrated in Major Cities
Cost is not the only problem. Geography is another major barrier.
Nigeria has only a limited number of cinema locations and screens compared with its huge population, with a significant proportion concentrated in Lagos and the South-West.
Lagos alone accounts for a substantial share of the country’s cinema revenue and admissions.
This means that while residents of Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and a few other major cities have relatively easy access to cinemas, millions of Nigerians in other parts of the country have limited or no access to theatrical releases.
The North, large parts of the South-East, the Middle Belt and smaller towns are not necessarily markets without movie lovers. Rather, many of them simply lack the infrastructure needed to participate in the modern cinema economy.
Old Nollywood faced no such geographical limitation.
A VCD could be sold in Lagos, Kano, Enugu, Benin, Ibadan or a small town far from any shopping mall. Video clubs and roadside vendors effectively became the industry’s distribution network.
Star Power Is Now Driving Cinema Attendance
Another major change is the growing influence of celebrity and fan culture.
A relatively small number of major releases now account for a significant portion of annual box-office revenue.
Films associated with highly popular actors, producers and filmmakers can attract large audiences through extensive publicity campaigns, social media promotions and fan engagement.
This has created a model where people increasingly go to the cinema because they are fans of a particular actor or filmmaker, rather than simply because watching Nigerian films has become a routine part of everyday life.
That represents a major shift from the old home-video era, when Nigerian films were consumed regularly by people across different social classes.
The success of a few blockbuster titles can therefore make the industry appear much larger than the underlying audience actually is.
Nollywood Needs to Focus on Access
The answer is not necessarily to abandon cinemas or return to the VCD era.
The home-video system had its own problems, particularly piracy, which severely affected the industry’s ability to generate sustainable revenue.
Modern cinema has provided filmmakers with a more structured way to monetise their work and improve production standards.
However, Nollywood must also confront the problem of accessibility.
The industry could explore cheaper screening models in neighbourhoods and smaller cities, expand cinema infrastructure beyond the South-West and create faster, affordable distribution windows for Nigerians who cannot afford multiplex prices.
Streaming platforms could also play a role by providing affordable access to films after their theatrical runs.
The debate over old and new Nollywood should therefore go beyond whether today’s movies look better or whether older films had better stories.
Modern Nollywood has clearly improved in terms of technical quality and production standards.
But an industry is not defined only by how much money it makes or how sophisticated its films look. It is also defined by how many people can actually watch those films.
Old Nollywood may not have had today’s cameras, sound systems or production budgets, but its films reached ordinary Nigerians on a massive scale.
That is the lesson modern Nollywood cannot afford to ignore: breaking box-office records means little if the majority of Nigerians remain outside the audience.
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