People say Nollywood is watched everywhere. That’s also partly true. But the reality is that much of our audience is still Nigerian or Nigerian-adjacent. We know this because the big streamers tell us. Our YouTube RPMs tell us too. Big view counts with relatively low earnings are often a sign of where those views are coming from… If Nollywood were truly global in the way Hollywood, anime, or K-dramas are global, many of our creators would be earning significantly more from international audiences.
NOLLYWOOD isn’t truly global… yet.
I’d argue the same is true of our food, and perhaps even our music. But let’s focus on Nollywood.
Should we aspire to be global? Absolutely. For any entertainment industry coming out of a developing country, that is the path to long-term growth and sustainability.
Do we have the potential? Hmm.
I’ll share my thoughts in two posts, and then I’ll leave it there.
Growing up in the 80s and 90s, many of us watched Chinese and Indian films without subtitles Through cheap pirated copies that found their way into the country. Back then,Physical media meant ownership. In a strange way, that was one path to becoming global.
Many of the foreign films we watched on television weren’t even properly licensed. We missed the opportunity to be global then because Nollywood was a struggling industry. We couldn’t afford to shoot on film at a commercial scale, and we lacked meaningful distribution networks. We’re still a struggling industry today, but the world has changed.
One thing we must stop doing is confusing isolated success stories with global adoption.
Small sample sizes prove very little. Viral moments prove even less.
People often say Nigerian Jollof is globally popular. Maybe. But how many major international airports have a Nigerian restaurant?
People say Nollywood is watched everywhere. That’s also partly true. But the reality is that much of our audience is still Nigerian or Nigerian-adjacent. We know this because the big streamers tell us. Our YouTube RPMs tell us too. Big view counts with relatively low earnings are often a sign of where those views are coming from.
If Nollywood were truly global in the way Hollywood, anime, or K-dramas are global, many of our creators would be earning significantly more from international audiences.
Curiosity is not the same thing as adoption.
That said, curiosity is a good place to start.
Anime was once a curiosity in the West. Wuxia films were once a curiosity too. Over time, they became part of mainstream global culture.
Today, I believe Nollywood is still largely a curiosity to international audiences.
So how do we move from curiosity to adoption?
I’ll share my thoughts on Sunday.
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We agree that the foreign actors aren’t hiding but they tour the country and do press. Everyone knows they are filming here. It becomes part of the story. They hang out with our actors. It becomes a nationwide gist even before production... We insist they bring their best stuntmen/vfx artists and tech crew where we don’t have equal strength. But we get them the best local hands including stuntmen, musicians etc. We must co-write the screenplay at the most… it must feel like an entire industry effort.
FIRST we have to align on a few things.
We don’t have global reach money… but
We need to stop begging for money and start offering incentives as an industry (I’ll explain more)
We overprice ourselves and overestimate our true worth
There are global stars and there are just random white/black actors.. know the difference
stop comparing film with music/twitch streamers (that’s very dumb).
First word Co- production. Second word Collaboration. Two examples Okja (South Korea/US) and Slumdog Millionaire (UK/India)
These two approaches will get us there but if you read up those two movies, you will notice a few things. They were heavily funded by the west but the films are undeniably Korean and Indian. Now these weren’t films made in Korea by Koreans and licensed (like Oldboy) or in India (like Lagaan) cos those got some attention globally as well. There was however a major take off after Okja and SM.
Imagine a film set in Nigeria.. preferably based on something we are globally known for. It needs to be funded but we need to decide how to fund it. Everyone, especially Hollywood loves to make the lowest budget version of the best thing. International partners agree to fund most of it but we don’t ask for money… we make a deal… We don’t want some washed up American/british actor.. we want a global star(s). We also offer our top actors. We ask that every aspect of the budget that includes locations, security, casting locally, we cover all of that (pay our actors and local crew in the Naira we can afford). this increases our equity cos the partners don’t have to spend too much but they must bring a global star n crew.
We agree that the foreign actors aren’t hiding but they tour the country and do press. Everyone knows they are filming here. It becomes part of the story. They hang out with our actors. It becomes a nationwide gist even before production.
We insist they bring their best stuntmen/vfx artists and tech crew where we don’t have equal strength. But we get them the best local hands including stuntmen, musicians etc. We must co-write the screenplay at the most… it must feel like an entire industry effort.
We only need to do one and prove we are ready. What are we willing to sacrifice… nobody is going to give us money and wait for us to give them a “global” film.
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/niyiakinmolayan/
