Renowned filmmaker Kunle Afolayan has said he is not interested in box office records or competing for cinema revenue, stressing that his focus is on creative control and long-term value rather than headline earnings.
Afolayan made the remarks while speaking at the Lagos Business of Film Summit on January 30, where he criticised what he described as the exhausting promotional demands associated with cinema releases.
According to him, streaming platforms such as Netflix offer better returns without the pressure of extensive promotional gimmicks, citing his recent project, Aníkúlápó: Rise of the Spectre, as an example.
Responding to questions about a possible return to cinema releases, Afolayan suggested he would only do so under the right creative conditions. “I’ll come back if Kene and Ope can say to me, look at the gimmick she has left. See what they did.
“They want to release in December, your film that you are in. They have announced in January. But my point really is, I just need like, I’ll make you amazing film,” he said in part.
Referencing Aníkúlápó, the filmmaker noted that minimal promotion can still generate strong audience interest.
“Look at, okay, look at Anikulapo, This is not anything. We released just a screenshot, a screen grab of the series, I did that like two weeks ago. I posted it and it was people have been stabbed of good content.
“You see why you need me, Kene The whole world went boom because they haven’t seen, you know, anything from us in a while,” he said.
He added that while a future cinema collaboration remains possible, it would not involve what he described as performative promotion.
“This year, if there’s a collaboration, we can make a great film and then we go to cinema. But we won’t dance.”
In a separate video that began trending on Saturday, Afolayan reiterated his stance on box office competition,
“I will continue to say it: there is no competition. I don’t want ₦2bn in the cinema. I don’t even want ₦1bn in the cinema if I can’t take ₦10m,” he said.
His remarks come in the wake of recent box office hits, including Funke Akindele’s Behind The Scenes, which crossed the ₦2 billion mark, becoming the first Nollywood film to achieve the milestone, and Toyin Abraham’s Oversabi Aunty, which grossed over ₦1 billion.
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