CINEMA VS. STREAMING, AND THE WINNER IS…?
ADEBIYI ADEDIRAN JOSEPH
The Nigerian cinemas have reinvented itself quite well since after the colonial era with notable names and films in the make believe industry. Nigeria’s film legends like Herbert Ogunde, Duro Ladipo, Moses Olaiya and a host of others made their debuts this period. This was the period of Yoruba travelling theater having incursion into filmmaking, partially at the beginning and fully towards the indigenization era of General Olusegun Obasanjo as the military Head of State.
Films in this period were shown at the few cinemas of that time. As a popular saying goes, change is inevitable especially in the era of new and emerging media. It was a thriving business until General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida introduced Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), the twist was harrowing for all stakeholders in the industry. Cinemas metamorphosed into churches and eateries. Night life became dangerous and disappeared. Purchasing power dwindled as middle class gave way strictly to only the haves and have-n0ts. To process raw stock was a herculean task and many film makers ran into debt owing to different reasons. Behold, the death of cinema and the rise of TV dramas.
The Nigerian film industry evolved from teleplays to the introduction of ‘Direct to Home Video’ which viewers saw as a more preferable means for watching movies. In 2004, The Silverbird Group launched the second coming of cinema culture with another series of modern cinema houses across major cities in Nigeria, others such as Genesis Deluxe, Filmhouse, Viva, and Ozone cinemas followed.
Despite the negative impact of COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and 2021, the box office report in favour of Nigerian movies that were exhibited within that period was massive. According to data from the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN), viewers had already spent over an estimated two billion naira to watch the local movies. The report showed that movies like Ramsey Noah’s Living in Bondage: Breaking Free had viewers spent N158.43 million on it, Chief Daddy by Niyi Akinmolayan earned N153.51 million, Ayo Makun’s Merry Men 2, Bolanle Austen-Peters’ Bling Lagosians, and Funke Akindele’s Your Excellency, all raked in N141.15 million, N120.13 million, and N115.36 million respectively from dedicated viewers.
As of January 2021, Nigeria registered approximately 104 million active internet users, which corresponds to about half of the total population and about 77 cinemas spread across the country, According to a UNESCO data in 2021, the number of cinema screens in Africa is at 1,653, which is one screen per 781,402 in population coverage, Nigeria being the largest country and biggest economy in Africa with Lagos as it’s capital being the home of the second biggest movie industry in the world (Nollywood) can only boast of 237 screens as at 2021.
As attractive as the money generated from cinemas may be, they have limitations in supply and capacity of viewers they can house, the cinemas were having a good run not until Corona virus hit the world unannounced leaving most sectors paralyzed, example is the entertainment sector especially our cinemas. The end of February 2020, the dangers of the COVID-19 pandemic became more alarming and the entertainment industry went from promising to one of the worst hit economies by corona virus .
A report by Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN), shows that cinemas in Nigeria lost up to 30 per cent of their weekend revenues from January, and 30.65 per cent more between January and March 2020. Due to their nature of operation which hosted numerous viewers in an enclosed space, the cinemas were forced to shut down indefinitely. This closure made film production and viewing to be cancelled, and production crews working on different sets across the country had to stop and postpone work to flatten the curve of the pandemic.
As film productions came to an halt and the cinema patrons were restricted to their homes, there came the era of streaming movies. This era is meant to succeed where cinemas have failed or is still improving. Netflix and Amazon, two of the world’s largest movies and film online streaming giants seized the opportunity of the lockdown. Netflix was first introduced to Nollywood when it acquired Genevieve Nnaji’s 2018 directorial debut film Lionheart with a follow up with Niyi Akinmolaya’s The Wedding Party II , then sequel to The Wedding Party which was already a 1.5 million dollars hit in cinemas across Nigeria.
After a year when the preventive measures for COVID-19 had lessened, the cinema tried to get back to operations but the streaming services have come to stay. With the new measures in place, making it difficult for them to compete new measures like social distancing and use of nose mask only allowed few people in a particular room which is bad for the nature of their business. Recently, the release of Kemi Adetiba’s King of Boys II: The Return of The King, exclusively on Netflix after the King of Boys shows that the Nigerian cinemas will have to work hand in hand with streaming platforms as more streaming services like showmax and HBO are already picking interest in Nollywood movies.
Although streaming platforms might be easier to access because it’s virtual and digital, but it can never take away the cinema experience you have watching your movie on a big screen, socializing and networking. Also, in a country like Nigeria that is still battling with the challenges of data speed and cost of streaming services, we all still have cinemas to contend with. Personally, I feel the competition is good for the entertainment industry. So it’s best that the competition remains healthy and both ways (streaming and cinema) be viewed as alternative (s) of each other.
Picture credits- internet
