The Nigerian Movies

Over the years, there have been several articles in tabloids, blogs, e-zines, etc., negatively delineating the image of Nigerian movies. Some of these criticisms have been attributed to areas like poor ending of the movies and the consistency of characters in movies, making them very boring and predictable for their viewers to watch. Today, the Nigeria movie industry has outgrown such criticisms, and there are plenty of actors used interchangeably to depict different characters in different storyline.

In the international arena, Nigerian movies are very popular and are watched in Western Europe, Cuba, the Caribbean -Jamaica to Trinidad/Tobago, Brazil, and Afro-Latin America. Infact, Nigerian movies are now making headlines all over Africa and beyond.

Nigerian movies are also sold around the world. You can buy Nigerian movies in shops in Europe and some Asian countries. However, in this aspect, there has been wide spread piracy of the movies, making it difficult for producers to earn the proper credit for their work.

Whilst the Nigeria Movie industry is gaining popularity and attention in the international circle, the industry still faces a lot of challenges; in the area of piracy and also production quality. In the areas of piracy, there is not much they can do about it as there are tons of technologies nowadays to duplicate films into their thousands within few minutes. Blank CDS are sold everywhere and with a few quid you can get a pack of 20 on eBay.  The likely solution for such movies is for the industry to embrace online video streaming websites such as YouTube to stream video for cash or exploit other technologies that would enable people download their movies for a fee or license.

In the area of quality, it is still very glaring that for the industry to compete effectively with some other emerging movie industry; they must improve the technical quality of their film and be better equipped with the knowledge of telling the African story in a well construed and informed manner. Although people have applauded Nigerian movie makers for producing 10-15 new movies into the market every fortnight, this mass production of these movies will certainly have an effect on the technical quality of the films, and the acting orientation of the actors.

For the Movie industry in Nigeria to survive to the next chapter, two issues must be addressed; the technical quality of the production and also the concept and knowledge of telling the story must be reviewed. The idea of bombarding the market with 10-20 movies every fortnight will not produce a quality movie. Unless the Nigerian Movie industry begins to set a standard for their organisation, for the release of movies, etc., the industry might not be long live, to continue to stand out amongst emerging movie industries.