The box office in January 2022 has dropped to a four-year low, compared to previous revenues recorded in the months of January from 2019.
According to data obtained by BusinessDay from the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria, the total January(weekend) box office earnings in 2022 is recorded at N234.4 million dropping 28.7% year-on-year (YOY) from January 2021 which stood at N329 million, it also trails January 2020 at N333.9 million and N286.9 million in 2019 of the same month.
Some experts say that streamers like Netflix might be the reason why there is a decrease in cinema attendance this year as there has been equally good content on the platform.
The start of the year is also a lucrative month for movies, though it has been a tendency in recent years that December box office revenue has surpassed January earnings, and this year was no exception, with December generating over N757.3 million.
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The top movie for the month spiderman No way home grossed over N70.1 million with a total box office gross for January with total revenue of N713.4 million beating the highest-grossing Nollywood movie Omo Ghetto: The saga which raked over N640 million at the box office.
The third instalment of the Marvel movie which has grossed almost $1 billion globally shows the movie remains evergreen and might still be in theatres till March to drive more revenue as it still makes a box of revenue for cinema owners.
In January of last year, Omo Ghetto: The saga topped cinema earnings with average weekend revenue of 40 million with over N500 million in cumulative revenue at that time. In January of 2020 Nollywood blockbusters like ‘Sugar Rush’, ‘Merry men2’, ‘Your Excellency’ were stiff competitions to Hollywood movies such as ‘Jumanji: The next level’ and ‘Bad boys for life.
This year we didn’t see much of a competition for Spider-man: No Way Home, as the closest trailing movie in revenue, was Nigerian comedian and actor Ayo Makun’s ‘Christmas in Miami’ which grossed 38.3 million in January alone with a total of N253.3 million at the box office.
According to the Netflix Top 10 ranking website, movies like Chief Daddy 2, A Naija Christmas, fine wine, and Netflix originals like Don’t Look Up and Nora Roberts Brazen are at the top of the charts, and while the company does not divulge viewing counts, the numbers are likely in the millions and kept some movie fans at home.
