The film industry in West Africa is booming, with Nigerian productions being the largest in the region and all of Africa. In terms of revenue, Nigeria generates the largest share of
. The high percentage is directly related to the large population of Nigeria (over 200 million people), compared to the smaller populations of Liberia and Ghana. In 2022, the
originating from Liberia, Ghana, and Nigeria amounted to approximately 6.9 billion Nigerian Naira (NGN), approximately 4.6 million U.S. dollars, with a total of over 3.1 million
. Due to the coronavirus pandemic starting in 2019, cinemas were closed. They reopened only in Nigeria in September 2020. Thus, admissions, as well as revenue, considerably dropped in 2020, reaching only 1.7 million admissions, about 67 percent less compared to 2019, while
added up to roughly 2.1 billion NGN, about 1.4 million U.S. dollars.
Large cinemas and expensive tickets
The
largest cinemas in anglophone West Africa are mostly located in Nigeria and Ghana, while in Liberia no movie theater has more than 500 seats. As of 2022, the biggest movie theaters were in the capital cities of Abuja and Accra, two Silverbird Cinema sites. In fact, many large movie theaters belong to the chain Silverbird Cinemas. Some other
large cinema chains across Anglophone West Africa are Lighthouse, Filmhouse, and Genesis. In 2022, the average price for a
movie ticket across Liberia, Ghana, and Nigeria was nearly 2,200 NGN, equivalent to 1.5 U.S. dollars. The tickets are, in relation to people's average salaries, quite expensive. For instance, in Nigeria, the
minimum living wage is estimated to be 43,200 NGN, roughly 28.5 U.S. dollars per month. Similarly, in Ghana, the average monthly wage is 900 Ghanaian cedis (GHS), around 72 U.S. dollars.
Nollywood heads the ranking
In 2021, most of the
titles released across English-speaking West-Africa were produced by Nollywood. Hollywood and Bollywood movies were the second and third most popular productions in this region. Ghollywood, Ghana's main film industry, released six movies. In 2022, the best selling movie pictures from
Nollywood were
Brotherhood,
King of Thieves,
Battle on Buka Street, and
Ijakumo. When also taking into account movies released in 2022, the
movie with the highest box office in Nigeria was
Brotherhood, a crime-action thriller released in September 2022.
Source of income and employment
The film industry represents an important source of income and employment for West Africa. According to data from 2022, the whole creativity and information
industry accounted for roughly 17 percent of Nigeria's GDP. Also, in 2017, Nollywood received some
financial support such as loans and grants by the Nigerian government. The grants were supported by the government's Project Act Nollywood, an investment aiming to gain better productions, distribution networks, and capacity building. Furthermore, according to recent data, this sector
employed over five thousand people in Ghana. One other source of revenue is advertising in cinematography productions. For instance, in 2018, ads originated a value of some 400 thousand U.S. dollars
in Ghana and 700 U.S. dollars
in Nigeria.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no
liability for the information given being complete or correct.
Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date
data than referenced in the text.
