Its no news again that Kemi Adebita's film "The Wedding Party" is the Nollywood film that is presently topping the charts and making rave in the cinemas at the moment. Such is evident in the fact that my two last post before this has been solely about the movie making this it's third straight single post.
In this post we will be analyzing the reason as to why Kemi Adebita The Wedding Party was able to over throw Robert O. Peters A Trip to Jamaica (spoiler; or not so much of a spoiler again: The Wedding Party has grossed over 200 million Naira in just 16 days). First get the facts straight, no other genre of movie besides comedy will be able to perform well ( in terms of reaching and surpassing the 100 million mark) in the present Nigeria situation.
Its understandable to an extent. with all the challenges Nigeria is faced with at the moment, its understandable why an average Nigerian person will prefer to pay to watch a comedy flick that will relive him of the burden of the Nation for a few hours than pay for a movie just for the sake of its all round awesomeness. (evident in Kunle Afolayan's CEO movie that premiered just months within the same time The Wedding Party and A Trip to Jamaica did).
Ay's movie have been holding up to the no 1 spot for two years now, performing the trick with two movies back to back until The Wedding Party came calling. Now this two block busters are both in the comedy genre, so what did The Wedding Party do right?
It's a simple trick that Don Omope and Ijeoma Agukoronye knows that Ay Makun refused to apply in his movie. You see when a Nigerian has to pay for a show, concert, comedy gig or movie, even if the ticket cost is five hundred Naira, they would want to squeeze out every worth out of that five hundred Naira. That's why most times when you organize a program with no top chart celebrity listed to perform the turn out is usually low no matter what the ticket price is.
In A Trip to Jamaica Ay only employed the prowess of Funke Akindele, Nse Ikpe Etim, Cynthia Morgan and Patoranking who more or less made cameo appearances, some Hollywood 'stars' who are practically unknown to Nigerians, so most of the people whop went to see A Trip to Jamaica were just the same set of people who the previous cast of 30 days in Atalanta was able to wow, no new audience to boost the rakings.
But when Don Omope and Ijeoma Agukoronye were going to ensemble a cast, they brought in Banky W, Emmaomg, RMD, Alibaba, Frank Donga, names that most Nigerians are currently familiar with and interact with, so its easier to bring in the fans of this home grown and celebrated
celebrities and more others who don't fall for one or two but a combination of celebs.
If Ay wants to reclaim his spot as the no 1 highest grossing movie producer in Nollywood, he has to apply the logic he uses in his comedy shows "Ay Live" to the cinema screen. Let the next installment of the gigantic series boast of more home grown and familiar stars then maybe Nigerians will be more than persuaded to pay for his flick.
I remain Shalombrain
