Every once in a while a film story comes along that is so good you just have to cheer. The rise of Nollywood is one of those stories. Nollywood is the Nigerian film industry. According to Fortune online, the Nigerian film industry is now a 3 billion dollar plus industry and, at least in terms of volume, it is the world's second leading producer of films.That's right. Nigeria produces more films than Hollywood and is only topped by Bollywood.
How big is the Nigerian film industry? Well, it produces up to fifty films a week and, in 2013, produced 1844 films. Most done in the capital city of Lagos, a city of 21 million making it Africa's biggest city, the digital revolution of the 1990's is what made this film revolution in Nigeria . Nigerian films are shot very simply and cheaply and with a very small crew. It's not unusual for your average Nollywood film to have one camera, a handful of lights and a week's shooting schedule. All this cost's about $10,000 to 15,000 thousand dollars. The digital camera has made for a very democratic revolution in Nigeria at least on film.
As SaharaReporters notes, all this sucess doesn't come without problems as Nigerian producer Kunle Afolayan has noted "The truth is key players in the global industry still have little idea what Nollywood is about. The volume won't matter until we can connect the art to the money with better content and profit." This sums up the problem for Nigerian film. In a country with very few theaters, pirating is a huge problem. Selling a film is dependent on street vendors which leaves a lot of opportunity for pirating. The industry also hasn't had a star break out on the international stage. Efforts are being mounted to protect filmmakers in Nigeria.
The growth of Nollywood and it's are appeal are easy to explain. The films are shot cheaply with simple themes such family drama,infidelity,corruption and village life. This lends the films a strong universal appeal. Considering how young the Nigerian film industry is it only has room to grow.
