The Nigerian film Industry has made giant strides from shoestring budgets to investing hundreds of millions to tell our stories. Now one of the greatest employers of labour, SAMUEL ABULUDE writes on the marketing, sales, and patronage of Nollywood movies
The Nigerian film industry known as Nollywood has come of age. From the traveling theater troupes of the 1960s to the global streaming dominance of 2026, the Nigerian film industry popularly known as Nollywood has undergone one of the most radical technological and cultural transformations in media history.
Today, Nollywood stands as the second-largest film industry in the world by volume, but its journey was paved by resilience in the face of economic collapse and a relentless spirit of making it work.
The Golden Age: Celluloid and Traveling Theaters (1960s–1980s)
Before the Nollywood brand existed, Nigerian cinema was rooted in the rich tradition of Yoruba Traveling Theater. Pioneers like Hubert Ogunde and Ola Balogun transitioned from stage to screen, filming on 35mm and 16mm celluloid.
Movie stalwarts like Adebayo Salami popularly known as Oga Bello, witnessed the travelling theatre phase of the movie industry and hailed the pioneers and players that made it work. There was high production value, manifested via the screening in grand cinema halls like Glover Memorial Hall.
There were cinemas owned by foreign companies during this era until the indigenization policy by the military government crippled them.
The devaluation of the Naira in the 1980s caused a decline in movie production as
importing celluloid and equipment became prohibitively expensive. This was when cinema culture faded as security concerns and economic hardship kept people indoors.
The Video VHS Revolution (1992–2000s)
The modern industry was born not in a studio, but in the bustling electronics markets of Lagos. This was when the Direct-To-Home (DTH) era brought films to the homes of viewers. In 1992, electronics merchant, Kenneth Nnebue had a surplus of blank VHS tapes and decided to use them to shoot a movie. The resulting film, Living in Bondage, was a massive hit. It proved that Nigerians didn’t need expensive celluloid or theaters; they were hungry for local stories they could watch in their living rooms.
This era brought a new approach to the production style of movies as they were shot in ten days on shoestring budgets. Distribution was Informal in this era as neighborhood video rentals and street hawkers were used. This was when movie production was entrenched as the system allowed more films to be shot within weeks to maximize time and profit. This era established the name ‘Nollywood’ name creating a pan-African cultural phenomenon.
Many actors and producers were made during this era. Nollywood got the attention of the global world. There was a need for practitioners to create a system for the industry to thrive but piracy dealt with the system.
Oga Bello, veteran actor and producer
Who spoke in an earlier interview on the challenges of the era and beyond said, “The movie industry has a problem of distribution up till now. Go and look for a producer who has made it through distribution. I stand to be corrected but I must tell you that. Even I have lamented so much. Let’s talk about the cinema houses now, they take the larger percentage, which is not good enough for the producer.
“How will you produce another movie when you’re unable to recoup your money? Coming to the Yoruba sector you’re talking about, they’ve tried their best. You cannot eradicate piracy all over the world. The enabling law for piracy is very bad, it’s not strong enough. If a pirate steals a work and realises about a hundred million and the only punishment in court is fifty thousand, hundred thousand naira fine, won’t he pay and go back for it? Except there’s a strong punishment for it, that’s how we can scale through. That’s where the government did not look at our side at all which is quite unfortunate. I don’t want to apportion blame but all I know is that filmmaking has a distribution problem.”
The Return Of Cinemas (2009–2020)
By the late 2000s, audiences were tired of repetitive plots and movies shot to exploit the viewer. ‘The Figurine’ movie made by movie director, Kunle Afolayan released in 2009 is often cited as the turning point that sparked the New Nigerian Cinema. This era saw a return to the big screen, with higher budgets, professional cinematography, and corporate sponsorships. Cinema theatres and multiplexes began popping up in malls across Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, shifting the focus from quantity to blockbuster quality.
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