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97 per cent of Nollywood movies don’t make profit– Lancelot Imaseun

Lancelot-Imaseun

Lancelot Imaseun

Tofarati Ige

Popular director and filmmaker, Lancelot Imaseun, has made a shocking revelation. According to him, 97 per cent of Nollywood movies don’t turn a profit.

Speaking on the state of the industry with Sunday Scoop during the week, Imaseun said, “I think we have gone through it all. As we speak, I have spent 24 years in Nollywood, and in that period, I have seen the good, bad and ugly. We have seen a complete lack of government’s interest in the industry, and we have also seen partial interest by the government at different times and during different tenures. There has been progression in the industry. There was a time when people in the Diaspora said we were doing nonsense here and they wanted to show us how to make ‘good’ films. We saw an influx of films made abroad and how they all failed woefully. There is also a crop of people that call themselves ‘New Nollywood’. I am 48 years old and I don’t see how anybody can refer to me as old. Actually, I am in my prime right now. That I’ve been privileged to be one of the forerunners of Nollywood doesn’t make me old. I constantly train and retrain myself. Beyond all that, I think there has been progress in terms of the technicality of how we make our films. Of course, there have been challenges and consistent limitations that the average Nollywood filmmaker faces. These include not having the right environment, right government policies, tax incentives, and financial muscle to tell the kind of stories we really want.”

The veteran filmmaker also lamented that Nollywood didn’t have the right audience. He stated, “We don’t have the right audience and that is turning out to be the biggest problem in the industry. We don’t have an appreciative audience because by the Nigerian standard, anything that is not made overseas is not good. Don’t get me wrong though; there are a lot of poor films, but Nigeria must show character by encouraging indigenous productions. Everywhere you go in the world, there are policies that engage local content. But here, there is no form of encouragement from the government or even the private sector. It has been very taxing for us because one would have to source for one’s stories and funds. Despite all these, Nollywood practitioners have been dogged and resilient. The never-say-die spirit of the average Nigerian is what has sustained the industry to this level. However, we have yet to get distribution right and pirates are still having a field day. Hardly does any filmmaker actually make a profit. Quote me anywhere, 97.9 per cent of films don’t make money. It is just mostly about pure razzmatazz. It is the survival of the fittest or the most cunning. Needless to say, the industry needs to be structured. Today, I am one of the resource persons for (the Federal Government’s) N-Power for creatives. But where are the beneficiaries going to be absorbed into? If structures are not put in place for the future, that would be a huge challenge.”

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