TheCable

One entrepreneur wey dey live for Abuja claim sey Naija cinema ticket prices na di highest for di world.

Di entrepreneur, Yinka Ade-Aluko, na di chief executive for Doodle-Film Hub, one production and exhibition kompani for Abuja.

Ade-Aluko tok sey Naija cinema dey only favour pipu wey get moni, and e no dey look di youths wey plenti pass. 

Di filmmaker tok sey di market research wey im kompani do show sey cinema for Nigeria “na di most expensive for di world” as e “no too dey affordable” and “e no dey reach” average citizens.

Im no tok wen di kompani do di market research.

But which part of di filmmaker claim correct?

WETIN DEY CAUSE PRICE OF CINEMA TICKET?

Some of di tins wey dey affect price of film ticket na di base cost of cinema admission, fees wey join booking methods, taxes, discounts wey dey available during di time wey dem buy am, snacks, and any oda service wey dey.

Di base ticket price na di standard cost wey dem dey charge to watch film for cinema. E dey cover di basic expenses wey dey come wit film for theatre like di film licensing fee, di moni wey dem dey take run di cinema, and the operators profit.

Some cinemas get ogbonge experiences like IMAX wey be specialised and immersive film format/projection system wey dey offer bigger screen, sharp picture, and beta sound quality compare to di normal cinemas.

Like 3D or expensive seating option, dem dey come wit extra cost on top di base ticket price.

Many cinemas dey allow customers buy tickets online through dia website or mobile apps. For some cases, convenience fees or booking fees wey folo di online ticket purchases fit contribute to di overall price.

Some cinemas fit charge convenience fees to buy ticket for di box office or through automated on-site kiosks.

Depending on di local law, sales or entertainment tax fit folo di movie tickets wey go add to di final price wey di viewer go pay.

Cinemas fit offer discounts ontop tickets so dat customers go plenti. These fit include matinee pricing wey dem dey offer for movie screenings wey dey hapun earlier in the day, student or senior rates, loyalty rewards, group discounts, or promotional offers wey dey tied to specific films or events.

Some cinemas fit offer more services like reserved seating, in-seat food and beverage service, or you fit sidan for private lounge, wey fit folo dey inside di ticket price or e fit be optional add-ons for extra moni.

TICKET PRICE AROUND DI WORLD

Di moni wey dem dey take cut ticket for di same film inside di same or different kontri fit no dey di same depending on where di cinema dey.

Cinemas wey dey inside city big capitals fit cost pass sake of increased operating costs and higher demand pass di ones wey dey small towns.

Di specific cinema operating costs like rent, utilities, staff salary, and maintenance dey folo affect ticket prices.

Dem dey usually sell di right to show film collect moni within specific timeframe give cinema operators for licensing arrangement wey fit dey different for price based on di publicity profile or how di film take popular.

Di time of viewing, technology of di cinema, and competition among oda theatres fit folo affect ticket price.

Economic factors like inflation rates and consumer spending power based on each market fit affect ticket prices so that cinemas go dey forced to reduce dia prices during economic crisis make business continue.

Across di world, cinema and filmmaking na different businesses wey entrepreneurs dey do for profit, so margin fit folo dey for dat one.

Na because of these factors and more naim make ticket to watch di 2024 Jason Statham action thriller ‘The Bee Keeper’ dey cost pass $10 for cinema within California, US and less dan $4 for Filmhouse’s IMAX theatre for Lekki, Lagos.

Kontris wey get bigger market size wey dey predictable and measurable get beta “wiggle room” wey fit allow dem set lower price and dem go still see profit based on di plenti customers wey go show face. 

INSIDE NIGERIAN CINEMA BUSINESS

Some of di big cinema operators for Nigeria include Silverbird, Lighthouse, Ozone, Filmhouse, and Genesis.

For Nigeria, na live performances pipu bin dey watch before modern cinema come.

Na Silverbird Group bin first open di different modern cinema houses for Nigeria, wey bin mostly dey big man areas like Victoria Island’s Silverbird Galleria for Lagos wey dem open to di public since 2004.

Na as local filmmakers around 2008/2009 begin dey push dia market wella naim pipu wey dey go cinema for Nigeria begin dey buy dia ticket instead of only foreign films. 

By mid-2010s, DVDs bin no dey reign again sake of piracy. Nollywood filmmakers bin dey find beta way sell dia market. 

“You fit spend ₦20 million produce film, print am for DVDs, make you no even see ₦5 million becos of piracy,” na so cinematographer Allen Onyige tok. “Na wen cinema begin dey enta eye, for 2016.”

Netflix enta Sub-Saharan Africa in 2016 and pandemic four years later make plenti pipu begin stream film sake of social distancing, based on di way pipu dey full for cinemas.

Na so di cinema business for Nigeria begin suffer. Streaming bin give Nigerian viewers more options, quality control, and e save dia moni pass cinemas.

Informate from Inside Nollywood show sey yearly cinema admission (ticket sales) for Nigeria bin dey grow steady from 2.45 million for 2015 to 5.43 million for 2018. E begin go down for 2019 and e come worse sake of di streaming wey di pandemic cause for 2020.

Nigerian cinemas don dey struggle recover and maintain steady growth curve since dat tym.

Di streamers sef no help business case for filmmakers, dey offer about $90,000 to license film and dem go pay around $3.8 million+ to commission original productions.

For Nigeria, producers and cinemas dey typically get 40-40-20 profit-sharing formula wey 40 percent of exhibition income go reach di theatre and di filmmaker each. Di remaining 20 percent go cover di cost of promotion wey di cinema dey usually do.

Sometimes, dis 60-40 arrangement mean sey most Nigerian filmmakers no fit make profit from cinema, na why dem run go streaming.

As a result of dat, some cinema operators begin dia production or increase dia ticket price so dat business go still survive. 

Di inflation rate for  Nigeria wey dey currently at 29.9 percent, make mata worse for cinema operators as price of diesel and di cost of input for concession stand items like popcorn come high.

Cumulative box office revenue dey grow yearly, sake of steady increase for ticket prices, but e no come too sure weda pipu go still dey go plenti like before. 

“We be business. Yes, our prices dey increase. But fit justify am,” na so Patrick Lee, di immediate past president of ffi Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN), tok.

“Anytime wey we increase prices, na sake of govment policy wey cause inflation. Di problem na di salary wey cinemagoers dey collect no reach to survive inflation, which mean sey dia income go reduce.”

SO, NA NIGERIAN CINEMA COST PASS?

TheCable folo Yinka Ade-Aluko tok to check weda e dey possible to collect di informate from im kompani market research and to check wetin make am tok dat kain tin about Naija ticket price but di chief executive no gree, im tok sey na sake of di “sensitive” nature of business intelligence.

“If you fit check di minimum wages versus price of cinema tickets togeda wit gross admissions versus population percentages of di three largest film industries (Nollywood, Hollywood, and Bollywood), e no dey hide,” na so di film entrepreneur later tok.

From wetin Ade-Aluko tok, im idea of cost na di total price of wetin dem use buy ticket for any cinema join as percentage of di specific kontri minimum wage.

By im measure, salary of ₦30,000 for Nigeria (a little ova $18 at ₦1665/$) and Silverbird blanket ticket price of ₦8000 (about $4.8) mean sey pesin wey wan watch film dey collect dat kain salary gats spend 26.7% of dia monthly income ontop two hours of tv and one cup of popcorn.

Wit di table wey dey up, e no near di American wey only suppose spend di moni wey im earn inside one hour or two and only 1.46% of dia monthly salary to enjoy di same privilege.

TheCable check informate from one 2021 market survey on average ticket prices across 20 countries and six continents.

We come check di sample, compare am wit di current minimum wage to check if, by this metric, Nigerian cinemas fit be di most expensive.

Venezuela, where di minimum wage na just ova $4 (130 bolivars), naim suffer pass at a wage cost of ova 74 percent. Di list too long and na based on available informate naim dem draw di table, where di kontris wey di tin affect pass na dose ones wit di lowest official minimum wage.

Di claim wey Ade-Aluko make no look di need to differentiate di base price to buy cinema tickets and di conflated costs wey dey come from extra concession items.

TheCable analyse and sample Nigeria box office informate from 2018 to 2024 to confam di average price of movie tickets for each year.

We sample three films wey enta di box office’s top five from di first to fifth week of evri given year while we sample di 2018 only from December sake of lack of informate.

Di weekly gross come dey divided by di nomba of cinema admissions for those seven days.

Wetin comot na three figures wey we add divide by three to get yearly averages. Di result show sey actual tickets wey dem sell for ₦1138 on average in 2018, later increase to an average of ₦2571 (about $1.54 per ticket) by January 2024.

Predictive analysis show sey tickets to watch film for Nigerian cinema bin fit dey around ₦500 in 2015.

In specific ticket prices, di movies wey sell pass among di samples na ‘A Tribe Called Judah’ at ₦3920, ‘Malaika’ at ₦3670, and ‘Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom’ at ₦4020 ($2.4 at ₦1665/$) — all from 2024.

DI TRUE MEASURE OF TICKET COST

Ope Ajayi, founder of di film distribution start-up Cinemax and former general manager for Genesis Cinema, talk wella wen dem ask am about di claim wey tok sey Nigerian cinema tickets “na di world’s most expensive”.

“I wonder if di analyst truly do research or im dey find attention,” na so di film entrepreneur tok.

Patrick Lee, wey sabi di exhibition business, no gree for di calculator of using minimum wage to compare di cost of tickets.

Im argue sey Ade-Aluko’s claim dey try show sey evribody wey dey go cinema for Nigeria dey collect di same minimum wage.

“Who be di kain pipu wey dey go cinema? I gree, di working and middle class wey get change to spare,” na so im tok.

“But we don gree sey ₦30,000 na di average minimum wage for Nigeria? Because beta informate no dey, we no fit confam weda na di minimum wage evriwhere. E go make am difficult to compare Naija wit oda kontries.”

Based on dis informate and to cancel di income class segregation, TheCable still do anoda analysis, cari di before used pricing averages as percentage of di monthly GDP per capita across di 20 kontris wey we check for dis fact-check report.

GDP per capita dey measure kontri economic output per person. Dem dey calculate am by dividing di total GDP of one kontri by im population.

Dis metric dey help pesin understand di average economic well-being of individuals inside di kontri.

Lebanon naim bi di most expensive, as di average ticket price for di Asian country dey swallow up to 8.64 percent of di monthly GDP per capita. Cambodia naim folo with 7.84 percent. For inside Africa na Mali at 6.45 percent and Kenya at 4.71 percent.

Nigeria tanda at fifth position to chop only 3.37 percent of di monthly GDP per capita, no be di most expensive as dem claim.

DI WAHALA WEY PATRONAGE DEY BRING

Based on wetin Yinka Ade-Aluko tok, TheCable also check di nomba of pipu wey dey go cinema admissions with di kontri population ratio.

Di informate na from Inside Nollywood, wey show di nomba of pipu wey enta cinema from 2015 to 2023.

We come match dis informate with di population figures based on estimates from Statista.

TheCable worked based on understanding sey each admission count equals to one cinema-goer, even though one single individual fit go cinema pass one time, buy tickets for two or more movies in one year.

Di findings show sey Nigeria get small patronage problem. As of 2023, only 1.16% of di estimated 226 million population for Nigeria watch film for cinema that year.

To compare, informatea show sey cinema houses wey dey operate within di US (for Hollywood) bin sell a total of 849,598,661 tickets for 2023. Di 2023 estimated population of 339,996,563 show beta patronage rate of 249.88%.

In 2022, di box office for India bin sell pass 981 million movie tickets. By di same measure and based on 2019 population estimate of 1,417,173,173, e reach 69.22% patronage rate for dat year.

Naija box office neva near these kain nombas before, despite di fact sey dem dey celebrate Nollywood as di world’s second-largest by production volume.

Howeva, while dis fact fit address di general perception of cinema culture for Nigeria, wit some specific tins wey dey affect di industry and di kontri broader socio-economic environment, e no make any direct statement for ticket cost as Ade-Aluko bin try do.

FINAL TOK

Going by minimum wage as measure of cost, Naija cinema no bi di most expensive. Also going by monthly GDP per capita, Nigeria bin tanda at fifth inside sample of 20 kontris.

Each cinema industry get kontri-specific economic realities wey e dey take operate and film exhibitors dey get bare minimums to remain operational.

All informate show one tin. E no correct, and e dey misleading at best, to claim sey Nigerian cinema na di world’s most expensive.