By Elizabeth Bamigbade

Cinemas and streaming platforms have undoubtedly brought Nollywood to the door steps of many Nigerians and interested viewers outside the country.

Nollywood is fast growing that cinemas have in recent times represented a serious factor of cultural globalization and streaming, on the other hand, has definitely changed the industry, especially in times when theatres were shuttered as a result of the pandemic.

There is hardly anyone without one mobile device or more, which makes streaming on the go easy, leading to the explosion, not only in Nollywood, but also in the Nigerian entertainment industry as a whole. So it is easy to say that these gadgets are a great form of conversion for Nollywood since they increase the numbers of movie clicks and views which positively impact revenues with provision for sponsored advertisements.

The emergence of streaming platforms such as Iroko TV, Youtube, Netflix, Showmax, Amazon Prime, Ndani TV etc are considered as the new era of movie production.

Cinemas on the other hand brings people out in their hundreds with equal impact the movie turnover and also provide an avenue for people of different languages and culture to merge and form relationship.

However, this doesn’t come with its own downside. There is hardly an industry in entertainment that doesn’t contend with the issue of piracy.

According to the communication officer at TNC Africa, a film and TV production company, Dika Ofoma, piracy platforms that have been producing people’s hard work illegally to their audience and making money off are engaging in criminal act.

“Film makers are not making enough money here. So to see them lose money to piracy is painful. My fight is not with the people that cannot afford Netflix subs but at those who are making money off piracy”, said Ofoma.

While a pioneer Nollywood distributor, Gabriel Okoye revealed that “Piracy made me bankrupt”. He believed that many Nollywood investors died young because of the frustrations inflicted by pirates.

Despite the negatives, many of the old film producers like Kunle Afolayan, the producer of hit movies like A Naija Christmas, October1, still believe that the best revenue model for Nollywood is one in which cinemas and streaming exits side-by-side irrespective of their differences.