In Nigeria, some movie stars have proven
again and again that they can guarantee return
on investment as long as their faces adorn the
poster. They are Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde,
Genevieve Nnaji, Omoni Oboli, Funke Akindele
and Nse Ikpe-Etim.
Four elements contribute to the success of a
movie at the box-office. They include good
script, experienced director, professional
publicist, and most importantly, the big name
stars.
Of all the four, there is one a producer
should never violate at the market place and
that is the ‘star’ aspect of it. There could be a
bad script, inexperienced director and not too
good publicity for the movie but it is almost
impossible to have Return On Investment
(ROI) with un-bankable stars.
Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde:
On the list is Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde with
box-office gross of N60 million. She made
N24 million with Last Flight to Abuja, N6
million from Private Storm and her N30
million share in Ije bring her total earning to
N60 million.
This year alone, no actress has made as much
as N24 million from a single movie; Funke
Akindele would have done so with The Return
of Jenifa but the movie hit the box office in
2011.
Omotola, who was reported to have been paid
N5 million by Tarila Thompson all in the bid
to make his movie a blockbuster, has been
described as the biggest box office actress of
2012. She recorded successes back to back
but it remains to be seen if she can pull off
the box office magic again with Amina and
other movies coming in 2013.
Omotola has been an A-list actress even
before Genevieve got her first big break and
so what has been working for her is the wise
investment in her brand. Her enduring
presence and unceasing contact with her fans
via the social media has made her popular
even in an environment where a mother of
four like her is not fashionable.
Genevieve Nnaji:
Next is Genevieve Nnaji. Love or hate her,
Genny as she is fondly called, has a way with
cinema audiences that make them come back
again and again for her movies.
So far, Genevieve’s starring in the movies has
grossed over N83 million at the box
office. Mirror Boy (described by the actress as
her first major film and the first to put her at
the box-office) made N18 million, while Ije
netted N60 million turning out to be Nigeria’s
highest grossing movie ever. But Genevieve
had to share the money with Omotola, who
also acted alongside her. If
the sharingformula is 50-50, then Genevieve
gets N30 million of the total gross.
Genevieve’s next movie, Tango with Me went
on to make N35 million. So, putting all the
figures together, Genny remains at the head
of the pack. What seem to be working for
Genevieve are her enduring power, popularity
and social media connection. The actress has
been there for over a decade and is still
waxing stronger. Her wine seems to taste
better with age.
Another plus for Genny is her popularity.
Genevieve is hugely popular across Africa and
most especially among the youths. Before
now, she has been very active on the social
media especially Twitter. She even had to put
up a Facebook advert after reports emerged
that some acts were ahead of her there.
Funke Akindele:
Surprisingly, the third person on the list is
Funke Akindele, a young lady who rose to
fame in I Need To Know, a TV series, and went
on to earn a monstrous fame with Jenifa.
Funke is an unlikely candidate on this list.
Now, how can one explain that she is third on
a list parading heavy weights like Omoni
Oboli, Nse Ikpe-Etim and Stephanie Okereke
among others?
So far, Funke has made over N56 million,
netting over N20 million in 2012 alone. In The
Return of Jenifa, Funke netted N35 million.
The movie ran till February 2012. Her movie,
Married but Living Single made N9.9 million
while Maami made N11 million. The actress is
on her way to another cinema glory with a
movie, A Wish. Let’s hope she will be able to
wave the magical wand again and create a
box-office success.
For Funke who recently got married, the plus
factor for her is her huge popularity among
the masses and elites. Her movie, Jenifa cuts
across all social groups with the street
parlance in it becoming the mode of
communication in social gathering. And as an
icing on the cake , Funke has moved upscale,
she is now the toast of events organized by
the rich and not so rich. Her box office
credibility transcends the cinema as all DVDs
parading her face turn into gold.
Omoni Oboli:
Omoni Oboli, who is still largely unknown to
those who don’t patronise the cinema and
social media, is fourth on the list. She is a
silent achiever. Before the trio of Genevieve,
Omotola and Funke even dreamt of hitting the
box office, Omoni Oboli already took the lead.
Figurine, her first box office appearance made
N13 million while her second effort, Anchor
Baby made N18 million bringing her
total earning to N31million.
Omoni’s strength is her exclusivity and knack
for quality. It is a known fact that if the
project is not big and ambitious, Omoni might
not do it. The disadvantage of that is, despite
her box office credibility, Omoni is still
unknown in areas where there is no access to
cinemas. Perhaps, that is the reason she tries
to make up with the red carpet presence.
For now, the exclusivity is working for
Omoni; perhaps her new movie, Broken and
other works will introduce a new twist. One
other thing that should not be forgotten is
the unprecedented publicity of Anchor Baby
in 2010. The film also had Omoni at the
forefront of meeting and greeting of fans at
the cinemas.
Nse Ikpe-Etim:
The fifth slot belongs to Nse Ikpe-Etim. She
seems to be the latest sensation in big budget
movies. In Mr and Mrs, Nse was a delight, her
performance was a reference point and it was
a hook that kept drawing people to the
cinema while the movie was there.
Mr and Mrs made N6 million while another of
her film, Phone Swap made N20 million,
making a total of N26 million.
Too early for Nse to cement her place, as she
hasn’t done N15 million back-to-back but one
thing the actress has made clear is that she
has intention of doing that. The leading four
acts should be afraid of Nse because her
strength lies in her pure acting talent.
Nse is born to act, deemed to be
unnecessarily assertive a times, but you can’t
accuse her of not knowing her lines. And she
pushes her movies with virgour, moving from
one cinema to the other.
However, Nse should watch it as many have
accused her of being too ‘self-conscious’, a
term casually used for budding stars who
have ‘over-hyped’ impression of themselves as
this could alienate fans who make the box-
office count.
Rita Dominic and Stephanie
Okereke
Rita Dominic and Stephanie Okereke should
readily make the list but they haven’t
appeared at the cinemas more than once.
Hopefully, Rita will break into the list with The
Meeting, Lion of 76 and Street of Calabar
while Stephanie already had N10 million
under her belt with Through the Glass.
Of course, there are exceptions to the rules. A
bankable star makes easier the job of a
producer; the absence of one, however, is not
a ready-made doom for a movie as Avatar and
Slumdog Millionaire (both global box office
hits) have shown. But if one would take a risk
or err, it’s better to err on the part of
caution.
Wikipedia defines a bankable star to be an
actor famous or charismatic enough to be
“capable of guaranteeing box-office success
simply by showing up in a movie”. It is
common knowledge that a Will Smith will sell
any movie no matter how bad as long as he
has his face on the jacket.
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