The Nigerian Cinema Industry Attracts Over N10 Billion

  We have seen a stream of the middle class pulled to cinemas as we have also seen a rise in their disposable income. On this note, investors in the entertainment industry are tying resources together to build more cinemas in areas of high demand. The industry pioneers in Nigeria, Silverbird Cinemas, Filmhouse Cinemas and Genesis Deluxe Cinema among others have so far invested over N10billion ($61.4 million) in the big screen business. Mr. Harold Igbenusa, a building and project management consultant said, “It takes about N200 million to build a standard cinema and about N50 million to establish a standard big screen: including rent, rights and technical partnerships.” According to him, the ROI – return on investment- in the business seems to be attracting most of the recent investments despite the high cost of building a cinema and the difficulty in securing technical partnership. Major reasons for the increase in cinema viewership and investors’ interest in the cinemas has been ascribed to improvements in movie production recently as well as movie makers’ choice of premiering the works at cinemas before public launch as a means to curb the piracy of their efforts. As cinemas become attractive business options for investors and attract more viewers, requests are being made for the standardisation and control of the sector so as to regularise and ensure customers enjoy the best of service.