Key highlights
- For March, total sales were N441,752,914 across all cinemas with 174,071 viewers admitted into cinemas.
- Poor sales in February due to activities of the Presidential and National Assembly elections, as well as the national problem of cash crunch
- Super Mario Bros, Domitila, Bloomboys, Honey Money, Renfield, and The Pope’s exorcist, are noted as must-watch for the month of April.
Nigerian Cinema sales increased to N441 million in March, compared to N278 million in February after hitting sales of N819 million in January.
This was disclosed in a statement by the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) on Monday, National Chairman of CEAN, Mr. Opeyemi Ajayi added that they admitted 174,071 viewers for the period.
They attributed the elections to the fall in sales for the Month of February.
Increased sales
CEAN chief, Mr. Opeyemi Ajayi said the total admission of viewers into cinemas across the federation, for the period under review was 174,07, he added:
- ”For March, we had total sales of N441,752,914 across all cinemas with 174,071 viewers admission into cinemas.
- ”Sales in March were encouraging compared with February when we recorded total sales of N278 million due to activities of the Presidential and National Assembly elections, as well as the national problem of cash crunch.
- ” For April, we will be showing: Super Mario Bros, Domitila, Bloomboys, Honey Money, Renfield, and The Pope’s exorcist.”
Backstory
Nairametrics reported last month that Cinema operators in Nigeria announced a huge drop in sales for February as sales fall to N278 million compared with N819 million in January.
The National Chairman of the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN), revealed gross admission within the period under review was 122,295
Impact of naira Scarcity
The report said the Operators blamed the cash crunch and poor network service delivery being experienced by POS operators nationwide for the decline in sales, which was also impacted by the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
- “A couple of reasons are responsible for the drop in sales. We lost a weekend of sales during the Presidential and National Assembly elections, and Nigerians’ attention was focused on voting across the country.
- “Cash crunch and POS failures, affecting trading generally are also affecting the cinemas.
- “Many movie producers and distributors avoided releasing movies during the election period. So, the content was also somewhat limited,” he said.